US Senator Calls For New Cyber Doctrine
US Sen. Mark Warner (pictured) has called for a new US cyber doctrine designed to combat modern threats from hackers and disinformation campaigns. Warner serves as vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committe.
Government, tech companies, social media platforms and other stakeholders must collaborate on a "whole of society effort" to counter malicious campaigns from China, Russia and other countries, which have developed military strategies around shaping information in the digital space.
"Despite a flurry of strategy documents from the White House and DOD, the federal government is still not sufficiently organised or resourced to tackle this hybrid threat," said Warner.
Warner criticised President Donald Trump to task for not using his office to mobilise a broader response, and for eliminating important government positions, like the White House and State Department cyber coordinator posts.
Warner said the US must be at the forefront of shaping international norms that govern nation state behavior in cyberspace and set the table for acceptable use of offensive operations.
Warner called for a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to counter foreign-directed mis-information operations, particularly on social media.
He called out Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Google-owned YouTube and Tumblr as companies who "aren't doing nearly enough to prevent their platforms from becoming petri dishes for disinformation and propaganda."
Warner said these companies must improve the way they detect and minimise propaganda on their platforms, alert users when they're interacting with bots and improve transparency around data collection procedures and warned that regulation could be in the offing.
"At some point if they don't work with us, Congress will have to act on its own," said Warner. "One thing is clear: The Wild West days of social media are coming to an end."
Renee DiResta, a disinformation researcher, refers to this status quo in a November 2018 research paper as one of "continuous partial conflict" between nations that falls somewhere between a cold war and a hot one.
DiResta argues that only social media platforms are positioned to regulate the problem in the short term, and only if they recognise their own responsibility.
Many US government agencies are legally and politically constrained from policing disinformation without running afoul of Constitution limits, since it is often difficult to tease out from many campaigns where foreign influence ends and domestic free speech begins.
Robert Taylor, former Principal Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel for the Department of Defense under the Obama administration, told FCW that the Trump administration's cyber strategy lacked a meaningful component around combatting misinformation that outlines responsibility for the private sector while balancing relevant constitutional concerns around free speech and free enterprise.
However, he disagreed with Warner's suggestion that establishing norms in cyberspace should precede the use of offensive cyber tools, arguing that a willingness to conduct such operations is an essential component of current deterrence strategies.
"Offensive cyber capabilities and the ability to act outside our own networks to disable offensive capabilities directed at our networks, and the willingness to deploy such capabilities when necessary, are critical to a meaningful deterrence," said Taylor.
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