Since the government's efforts to deter hacker attacks are not working, it's time to consider implementing a more offensive strategy, Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, said Thursday.
"We focus primarily on the defensive, but I think now we're at a tipping point where we not only need to continue to build on the defensive capability, but we've also got to broaden our capabilities to provide policymakers and operational commanders with a broader range of options," Rogers told the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to Reuters.
Too many adversaries are able to attack the U.S. knowing that they won't be retaliated against, he said.
"We need to think about: How do we increase our capacity on the offensive side to get to that point of deterrence? ... In the end, a purely defensive, reactive strategy will be both late to need and incredibly resource-intense," reported The Washington Post.
Deployment of more offensive strategies has apparently been stalled due to concerns from the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon, who fear that the use of more aggressive cyberweapons could cause unwanted blowback and potentially hurt diplomatic relations. According to Rogers, policymakers still aren't convinced.
"We've got to increase our decision-makers' comfort and level of knowledge with what capabilities we have and what we can do," he said.
Rogers warned that there is a "strong, direct linkage" between "individual" hackers in Iran, Russia and China and "the nation state directing" an attack.
He refrained from saying exactly what kind of cyberattack capabilities the U.S. already has, and which methods it needs to improve on, but he did promise that the agency is working to "accelerate the work we are doing to keep on schedule," adding, "but I can promise you that will not be easy."
"We are already hard pressed to find qualified personnel to man our ... rosters, to get them cleared, and to get them trained and supported," he said.
In 2011, the Pentagon was forced to cut nearly a trillion dollars from its projected spending over a decade, noted Reuters. The department's 2016 budget asks for $35 billion more than federal spending caps.
