{"id":429580,"date":"2021-04-15T21:20:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T01:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=429580"},"modified":"2021-04-15T21:20:21","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T01:20:21","slug":"pinkerton-are-we-prepared-for-cyber-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pinkerton-are-we-prepared-for-cyber-war\/","title":{"rendered":"PINKERTON: Are We Prepared For Cyber War?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpinkerton-are-we-prepared-for-cyber-war%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=429580&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-2131.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Three events on April 11 remind us that cyber-security is a serious issue, not only for America\u2019s safety, but for our prosperity.<\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;<i>first<\/i> event was the report from Iran that the government\u2019s nuclear facility at Natanz, Iran, buried some 50 yards underground, had suffered a catastrophic explosion. The question: What triggered the blast? The tech site <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/son-of-stuxnet-1846661852\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/son-of-stuxnet-1846661852&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEqQZcdgUIHExAbDRnENaL0HCEb9g\">Gizmodo<\/a> headlined its report, \u201cSon of Stuxnet?\u201d That was an allusion to a 2010 attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, caused by the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stuxnet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stuxnet&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGFmz7-Rb3qSXDiLOOmQhaU-NlnPA\">Stuxnet<\/a>&nbsp;computer virus.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, <a href=\"http:\/\/stuxnet%20computer%20virus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/Stuxnet%2520computer%2520virus&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFo1F36aVsvj_8VZIoBmzHu70dIYA\">The Jerusalem Post<\/a> reports from government sources that the Natanz destruction was caused by an actual saboteur. We might observe that such a report could well be a meme aimed at making the Iranians even more paranoid, and suspicious of their own nuclear workers; that\u2019s a situation not conducive to good R&amp;D\u2014which is fine with Israel. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/04\/13\/iran-uranium-enrichment-nuclear-deal-joe-biden-vienna-negotiation-israel-natanz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Iran Ramps Up Uranium Enrichment To Highest Levels Ever As Biden Seeks To Re-Enter Nuclear Deal)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;<i>second<\/i>&nbsp;event was the report from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/top-kremlin-mouthpiece-warns-of-inevitable-war-with-us-over-another-ukraine-land-grab?ref=home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/top-kremlin-mouthpiece-warns-of-inevitable-war-with-us-over-another-ukraine-land-grab?ref%3Dhome&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFsog-7XmTPfcoKfW_OOBXZJoEMfw\">The Daily Beast<\/a>&nbsp;about the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=97-IaXBUKOE&amp;t=3044s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v%3D97-IaXBUKOE%26t%3D3044s&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGsxsmAF7y564ai1SLrenvpV6ZmHA\">videotaped words<\/a> of Russian propaganda official Margarita Simonyan, who declared, \u201cWar [with the U.S.] is inevitable.\u201d She added, \u201cI do not believe that this will be a large-scale hot war, like World War II, and I do not believe that there will be a long Cold War.&nbsp; It will be a war of the third type:<b>&nbsp;<\/b>the cyber war.\u201d She further predicted that Russia would win such a conflict: \u201cWe don\u2019t even need the nukes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <em>third<\/em> event came on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jonathanponciano\/2021\/04\/11\/fed-chair-powell-warns-that-cyber-attacks-and-covid-19-spreading-again-are-the-biggest-risks-to-the-economy\/?sh=b66b9cc5606f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jonathanponciano\/2021\/04\/11\/fed-chair-powell-warns-that-cyber-attacks-and-covid-19-spreading-again-are-the-biggest-risks-to-the-economy\/?sh%3Db66b9cc5606f&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFcCJkXG5MW-6JfjJujLYO__G-ZgA\">60 Minutes<\/a>,\u201d when Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell said that his biggest concern is \u201ccyber risk.\u201d As he put it, \u201cThere are scenarios in which a large financial institution would lose the ability to track the payments that it\u2019s making, where you would have a part of the financial system come to a halt.\u201d Yes, for sure, we have enough problems right now; we don\u2019t need a replay of 2008\u2014or of 1929.<\/p>\n<p>So what to make of these three news items? They come on top, of course, of a near-endless string of scary cyber events, including Russia\u2019s alleged 2016 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/archives\/sco\/file\/1373816\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/archives\/sco\/file\/1373816\/download&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFayKv-tR_sVdh1Ba5jLYffQ_5RTw\">hack of the Democratic National Committee<\/a>, China\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/usa\/us-intensifies-crackdown-china-intellectual-property-theft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/usa\/us-intensifies-crackdown-china-intellectual-property-theft&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGpAAg0T4aTWpRJdp76mSaI9rWeDw\">annual theft of several hundred billion dollars of U.S. intellectual property<\/a>, and, just on April 5, the news of a hack of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/04\/04\/tech\/facebook-user-info-leaked\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/04\/04\/tech\/facebook-user-info-leaked\/index.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNET23rPFlM8jV0glvlgPJPXeDJeXw\">more than 500 million Facebook accounts<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So what should the U.S. do? It\u2019s heartening that the Biden administration now seems committed to withdrawing, finally, from Afghanistan; in addition to the no-win drain of the fighting, the conflict has been a two-decade detour into low-tech counterinsurgency, encouraging the U.S. military to focus on low-yield objectives such as pacifying villages, while the Chinese, Russians, et al. have been free to focus on cyber and other high-tech weapons. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/04\/15\/victor-davis-hanson-how-to-start-a-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: How To Start A War)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the Pentagon has already been scrambling to catch up in prep for the tech wars of the future. In 2018, the Defense Department established a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cybercom.mil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.cybercom.mil&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHribtprKMxN1lCLlqN1ZY5WRxedA\">Cyber Command<\/a>, taking its place as of the 11 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Unified_combatant_command\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Unified_combatant_command&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGDDDz2Dcz-Ilot3iMbAdHl9f8zYQ\">combatant commands<\/a>.\u201d And there are now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/former-senior-nsa-officials-named-to-white-house-cyber-position-and-head-of-dhs-cyber-agency\/2021\/04\/11\/b9d408cc-9b2d-11eb-8005-bffc3a39f6d3_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/former-senior-nsa-officials-named-to-white-house-cyber-position-and-head-of-dhs-cyber-agency\/2021\/04\/11\/b9d408cc-9b2d-11eb-8005-bffc3a39f6d3_story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHdkQmPp8BXPAW7VjYcfFQWVWsHqg\">cyber-security operations<\/a>&nbsp;scattered all across the federal government, including at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n<p>So will these institutional evolutions solve our cyber-security problem? Let\u2019s hope so.<\/p>\n<p>Yet&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ndus.edu\/ndus-overview\/ndus-chancellor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/ndus.edu\/ndus-overview\/ndus-chancellor\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH9aOYjfgSxCvLaGZVFmhnGpd0kLw\">Mark Hagerott<\/a> isn\u2019t so sure. He\u2019s a former Navy nuclear engineer and White House Fellow, now Chancellor for the North Dakota University System, who has long been preoccupied with cyber-security. Back in 2017, Hagerott coauthored, along with retired Navy four-star James Stavridis, an article in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2017\/03\/21\/trumps-big-defense-buildup-should-include-a-national-cyber-academy-military-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2017\/03\/21\/trumps-big-defense-buildup-should-include-a-national-cyber-academy-military-education\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGoAtPQQ7zCnOB0LBQamTyn5cxbcQ\">Foreign Policy<\/a>, urging President Trump to establish a full-fledged service academy for cyber warriors, just as we have at Annapolis for the Navy and the Marines, at West Point for the Army, and at Colorado Springs for the Air Force.<\/p>\n<p>Four years later, Hagerott is still making his case. And it can be stated simply, as it\u2019s based on the canny observation that the current service academies will always deem cyber to be secondary to their core missions. These are, respectively, ships, airplanes, and soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview, Hagerott asserted: \u201cWe have training for fighting on water, in the air, or on land, and yet now we have this entirely disembodied area of cyberspace.\u201d And that\u2019s a place, he adds, \u201cthat\u2019s completely detached from flying planes, or driving tanks,\u201d where the winner is \u201cwhichever algorithm is stronger.\u201d In other words, it\u2019s entirely possible that a foe could seek to bypass our hulking military forces by attacking us in cyberspace, crippling our command and control \u2014 and perhaps even doing to our assets what the Israelis have been doing to Iranian centrifuges.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Hagerott continues, we\u2019ve only begun to think about the defense of the homeland: \u201cpower systems, ag systems, ventilation, all our data-driven infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hagerott was delighted to see like-minded thinking from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nscai.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Full-Report-Digital-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.nscai.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Full-Report-Digital-1.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEl30GC9kqo6CNvOSFeh6QHVWXbOw\">National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence<\/a>, which issued its final report on March 1, including this recommendation: \u201cWe should establish a new Digital Service Academy and civilian National Reserve to grow tech talent with the same seriousness of purpose that we grow military officers. The digital age demands a digital corps.\u201d <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/04\/12\/chris-inglis-stefan-halper-biden-cyber\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Biden\u2019s Cyber Nominee Is On Board Of Think Tank Founded By Spygate Professor Stefan Halper)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s a military service academy dedicated to cyber defense, or a digital academy, including civilians aimed toward the same end \u2014 Hagerott is for it. Indeed, as he explains, the stakes are even higher than the defense of the United States: \u201cThe question is which digital system \u2014 such as, for example, the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/HTTPS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/HTTPS&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618593217608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNELPTXL7xHXJox59JElXLAnaQwh5w\">HTTPS Internet protocol<\/a> \u2014 is going to prevail around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that, he adds, is a pointed question for the future of the whole planet: Should the global system be free and open, as the Internet is now, or will it be something unfree and closed, as the the People\u2019s Republic of China would have it?<\/p>\n<p>As Hagerott observes, \u201cWe\u2019re not just in an arms race, but rather, we\u2019re in a&nbsp;systems race.\u201d And for the sake of our prosperity, our security, and our basic human liberty, we\u2019d best not lose.&nbsp; So if a cyber academy can help stave off such a plunge into a new dark age, it\u2019s indeed well worth it.<\/p>\n<p><i>James P. Pinkerton, a former White House domestic policy aide to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, has been a Fox News contributor since 1996.<br \/><\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three events on April 11 remind us that cyber-security is a serious issue, not only for America\u2019s safety, but for our prosperity.The\u00a0first event was the report from Iran that the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1888313,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-429580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1888313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}