Top Pentagon officials are warning Congress about threatening new cyber warfare attacks from China and Russia that may require a change to tactics to allow the military to strike back — instead of the Obama policy of simply playing defense.
Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, revealed that he just received a “disturbing” secret briefing from the military’s best cyber experts. The Arizona Republican told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the threat is apparently so large that it is time to start an offensive cyber war.
McCain ended his address by mocking so-called “secret” briefings where he usually learned what he had read in the newspaper “the day before.”
Good speaking @CSIS on top defense & security priorities this morning. My full remarks: http://t.co/8KaKUAWFfS pic.twitter.com/SLoO9ukLvL
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) March 26, 2015
But the cyber briefing was different. “We received a briefing the other day from Adm. [Cecil] Haney [commander of U.S. Strategic Command] and Adm. [Michael] Rogers [U.S. Cyber Command and director of National Security Agency] that was a disturbing, on cyber, that was as disturbing as any briefing I ever had,” he told the audience.
“The threats on cyber, both Russia and China, are something that we are going to have to really, really seriously look at,” he said.
McCain didn’t give details but a top military source said that major targets of threats include the U.S. electric grid and Wall Street.
McCain suggested that it time for the national security community to stop playing defense and strike back. Some Pentagon officials have suggested an automatic trigger that sends a virus to any enemy that attempts to hack military sites.
“I frankly don’t think u can deter with simply defense capabilities,” said McCain.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
