and European “critical infrastructure,” defined by the Department of Homeland Security as “physical and cyber systems and assets that are so vital to the United States that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on our physical or economic security or public health or safety.” The National Information Protection Plan includes “energy” as a “critical infrastructure sector.” On the other side of the equation, Russia has regularly conducted cyber operations against U.S. Our primary role in this homeland defense mission is to defend forward by leveraging our focus outward to stop threats before they reach their targets. critical infrastructure that could cause a significant cyber incident regardless of whether that incident would impact DoD’s warfighting readiness or capability. He Department seeks to preempt, defeat, or deter malicious cyber activity targeting U.S. This legislation reflects the Department of Defense’s 2018 Cyber Strategy, as set forth in an unclassified summary of the document. operations were mounted in accordance with the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which grants the Secretary of Defense approval authority for “clandestine operations” … “to deter, safeguard, or defend against attacks or malicious cyber activities against the United States or Department of Defense information, networks, systems, installations, facilities, or other assets” (see Bobby Chesney here and here). But do these types of intrusions – seemingly intended to prepare for future operations or deter them, or both, without causing any actual harm – also run counter to applicable non-binding norms or violate international law during peacetime?Īs a domestic law matter, the most recent U.S.
For instance, in Operation Nitro Zeus, the United States allegedly “bored deeply into Iran’s infrastructure before the 2015 nuclear accord, placing digital ‘implants’ in systems that would enable it to bring down power grids, command-and-control systems and other infrastructure in case a conflict broke out.”ĭamaging critical infrastructure is clearly out of bounds as responsible peacetime state behavior and would likely violate international law.
This is not the first time such assertions have surfaced. critical infrastructure, and to build the capability to mount its own robust cyber operations against Russia in the event of a conflict. According to the New York Times, the United States is “stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid.” The operations involve the “deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s grid and other targets,” supposedly to warn Russia against conducting further hostile cyber operations against U.S.
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