The title above comes from Lily Hay Newman’s November 10, 2019 article she posrted to WIRED.com. WIRED.com, which is one of the best cyber security and technology websites on the Worldwide Web, held a WIRED25 Conference in San Francisco this week to discuss the latest trends and threats in the cyber domain. Anne Neuberger, the head of NSA’s new Cybersecurity Directorate provided the audience with her observations of some of the more serious cyber security threats facing the U.S. and our allies.
Ms. Neuberger “particularly emphasized the importance of proactively defending against vulmerabilities in emerging technologies like 5G, autonomous vehicles, quantum computing — and swarms of malicious drones,” Ms. Newman wrote.
“We felt the need to ensure that while using the technologies we understand the risks to our democracy, our society, and our economy, and we ensure we’re accounting for those risks at the same pace that the advancements become realities,” Ms. Neuberger said.
As was widely reported, the NSA stood-up their new cyber security directorate this past October, “with the goal of bolstering network and critical infrastructure defense by facilitating better communication about the threats within the NSA, and beyond to the private sector,” Ms. Newman wrote.
“We made a commitment to recognize that it wasn’t enough to write a classified report,” Ms. Neuberger told the audience. “We have to ensure that the information we have, makes its way to the people who can do something about it.”
With respect to “what keeps her up at night?,” Ms. Neuberger said “One of the things we’ve seen is weaponization of drones and low-orbit satellite sensor platforms. I think bringing together the intelligence of those sensor platforms with potentially large numbers of weaponized drones is a key concern.
Small, light-weight, inexpensive, and highly-capable low-orbit satellites and sensors are making space assessible to a growing number of countries, a trend that is likely to accelerate as we enter decade two of the 21st century. While these micro-satellites can peform critical inspection and maintenance functions, these same capabilities, especially sensors, can and are being utilized to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance of other nation’s critical space assets, and these same micro-satellites can also be weaponized (i.e., space mines). China, among other nations, is reportedly developing an nano-anti-satellite-weapon (ASAT), called parasitic satellite which can be covertly deployed and attached to one or several of their overhead constellation in low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The ‘cat-and-mouse’ game in space is getting more heated, and crowded.
And, as has been widely reported, China is making a major push in the artificial intelligence, quantum computing, hypersonic missiles, and autonomous systems — especially drones, on the ground, airborne and underwater. The race to become the leader in 5G technology is also being hotly contested between Beijing and Washington. Malicious, AI-enabled malware, ‘fake news,’ and denial and deception had indeed created a digital wilderness of mirrors. Ms. Neuberger has a lot to be concerned about. RCP, fortunascorner.com
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