Cyber offence and defence as mutually exclusive national policy priorities

In: Disarmament forum: the new security debate = Forum du désarmement, Heft 4

Abstract

This article discusses the policy dilemma states are facing when developing and using cyber weapons while also trying to strengthen their cyber defenses. The entire cyber domain is built on the foundation of hardware with common processing architectures connected by a standardized system for exchanging packetized data. Thus many of the same cyber vulnerabilities exist across many organizations and countries. The author uses the example of Stuxnet to illustrate how trying to keep vulnerabilities secret so that they can be used for offense will likely result in vulnerabilities going unfixed, thus hampering defensive efforts. Adapted from the source document.