By Melanie Wilkinson
YORK – U.S. Senator Ben Sasse says the country is not prepared to defend or retaliate against one of its greatest threats against national security.
Even more alarming is that most people don’t take the threat seriously.
What needs to happen is a real national conversation, Sasse said Thursday when he visited York. And that needs to be accompanied with preparation and real action.
The threat he was referring to?
Cyber war.
Senator Sasse says he has grave concerns about the future of cyber war, “and yet we have not had a good national conversation about cyber-attacks or strategy. I care a lot about this and we need to.”
“There are 800,000 people in Nebraska’s workforce and half of them work for small businesses,” Sasse said. “There are 168,000 small businesses in Nebraska and 18 percent of those small business owners think they’re a target for cyber-attacks. Many think ‘why would the bad guys want to attack me and what do I have in my computer that they would want to attack?’ Well, the fastest growing segment of cyber-attacks is on small businesses.”
On the scale of larger businesses, he used First National Bank as an example, which he said sees 250,000 to 300,000 cyber-attacks a day.
He also noted that the federal government is not immune to cyber-attacks, as one launched by what was thought to be from affiliates of the Chinese government resulted in the compromise of information about 22 million people.
He says cyber-attack is much more dangerous, in terms of likelihood, than physical attack, “as the probability of attack is much higher and the response (preparation and planning) is much lower.
“I want to bring these conversations to the forefront.”
Sen. Sasse referred to a cyber-attack in which patients’ lives hung in the balance while hackers asked for ransoms in order to free up computer systems in neonatal and intensive care units. “They did this to demonstrate just how much power they have. And ransoms were paid so patients wouldn’t die.”
Large scale cyber-attacks could have catastrophic results.
“Think about it,” Sasse said. “Right now, there are 7,000 flights, in the air, over the United States. Can you imagine if air traffic control was captured, or auto pilot systems? Airports, seaports, the electrical grid, imagine the stock market plummeting. Just recently, all financial services were shut down in the Ukraine (due to a cyber-attack). The sophistication for hacking is getting simpler.”
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Already, it is estimated that U.S. businesses have annual losses of approximately $108 billion due to cyber-crime.
“Sixty-eight percent of Americans have experienced data theft and 29 percent have lost control of their email or social media,” Sasse explained. “The pace of change will accelerate. Why does this matter? When you spend time with intelligence chiefs, experts, generals, like I do, I ask them questions. I ask them what I need to know about, what are they concerned about? In what areas are we under-investing? No one even takes a breath before they all say ‘Cyber war. We are not prepared for deterrence and/or retaliation.’”
An analogy was provided, using the 2014 cyber-attack on the Sony Corporation as an example, of how the federal government is not prepared to protect or defend or retaliate for private entities from cyber-attack.
“If someone said there was an inbound missile on its way, no one from the Pentagon would say it’s bound for downtown Baltimore so it’s not our problem – in comparison with the measures that would have to be taken would it be directed at the Pentagon. That would never happen. Yet, one-half of 1 percent of our defense spending is spent on cyber doctrine. We are radically unprepared for this threat,” Sen Sasse continued. “It is important that we develop offensive and defensive doctrines.”
He compared the nation’s preparedness and proactiveness in the nuclear age (starting in the 1940s) to today’s efforts regarding cyber warfare, regarding strategy and retaliation. The nation aggressively pursued capabilities and defense during those earlier years regarding the threat of nuclear war . . . yet very little effort is being put forth now to make sure the nation doesn’t suffer debilitating and catastrophic consequences due to cyber-attacks from enemies not easily detected.
“It is important that we have this conversation,” Sen. Sasse continued. “This is something that I am very concerned about, we all should be.”
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