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If we look past the North Korean missile program, has the U.S. opened Pandora's box by using malware to affect another country's missile launch? We used to tal
by Firebrand 10y ago
If we look past the North Korean missile program, has the U.S. opened Pandora's box by using malware to affect another country's missile launch?
We used to talk about Stuxnet infecting Iran's underground nuclear computer systems which destabilized their centrifuges, but now we're talking about malware affecting the "left of launch" of a missile. If this is the future of stopping a potential nuclear attack from another country then is everything that used to be stable about the nuclear order now in disarray due to the "cyber age"? During the Cold War, The U.S. and the USSR knew where each other's missile were located and generally shied away from operations within the other's command and control systems for the most part.
Are we not inviting other major powers to play around in our nuclear systems? It's one thing to try and stop the North Koreans from launching a missile at California, but if the Chinese, the Russians, and the U.S. are inside each other's command and control centers, does this not undermine the mutually assured destruction doctrine? It could help make a country be so sure of its capabilities that it would be willing take a bet and never suffer any proportional retaliation.
- mulmen 10y agoWe don't know what other possible defenses are in place, this may just be the method preferred at this stage in missile development or perhaps the NY Times just hasn't identified others yet. We may also have other vectors on the weapon itself. Perhaps another software bug like this or Stuxnet and/or more conventional missile defense technologies. Like anything else in cyber security it is important to understand what is possible to defend oneself against it. Do you think the Russians and Chinese would sit idly by if we did not participate in cyber warfare? With regard to MAD any nuclear strategy has to be based on the expectation of other parties interfering with the proper operation of our arsenal. This is why the nuclear triad exists. Is this a new vector? Maybe. Is it so different from designing missiles that are fire-and forget or using launch codes in the first place?
- ra 10y ago> Are we not inviting other major powers to play around in our nuclear systems? Not really. We're just acknowledging the fact that they can and will. I don't believe the US has the most advanced "cyberwarfare" military apparatus at this time... but that's another topic.
- sien 10y agoTo be fair, the Russians got their choice of president in the US. So it is already going both ways. It's not nuclear systems, but it's quite an achievement.