Inside Cyber Warfare - Jeffrey Carr [119]
Openness
Allowing government employees and security professionals to engage in social media (and blogging in particular) has been a contentious issue in the United States for years. A number of problems do arise from this type of behavior, quite a few of them security-related. Nonetheless, the possible benefits (such as the creation of an STN) can easily outweigh the real damage potential. The United States is far ahead here compared to most European governments, which still forbid this type of action.
Communication
Organized outreach programs are vital. In the purely technical and purely diplomatic circles, this is an established practice, but it should extend to other security areas as well. Again the United States has gone far in this area, with experiments with crowdsourcing intelligence and the like, but Australia and the UK also have very engaging approaches.
Accessibility
Being available for queries outside of the normal process is an important sign of truly open government. This means not only working across government (“Whole of Government”) but also being prepared to collaborate and communicate with nongovernment organizations (“Whole of Nation”). Although everyone needs to improve here, the United States has an especially long way to go.
Transparency
This is often misunderstood as demanding transparency on the inner workings of government. Instead, it is the government’s goals that should be transparent—which they should continuously be forced to defend—in part for the STNs that might be able to indicate where the government is, once again, working against its own goals. The United States does well here, although some European countries, such as the UK, Holland, and Sweden, are at least as transparent.
Understanding ambiguity
This is always an important skill, and it is important that individual civil servants understand the different roles people can occupy, and to what extent these roles facilitate or hinder closer cooperation. This is particularly important when someone’s motivation is balanced between altruistic volunteerism and commercial opportunity-seeking. A mixed experience for the United States (the “revolving door”), but the UK traditionally has been a past master at this art.
Trust
Trust makes security stronger, and it needs to work on every level. Security clearances are for the most part unreconstructed affairs dating back to the dawn of the Cold War. In the end, often they don’t mean much—whether you get information will still depend on the level of trust available. Obviously certain basic background checks are logical and should be done if any real security info is going to be passed onto outsiders; however, these are a couple of levels below real security clearances and can stay that way. Trusting one’s own judgment is much more important. The United States can learn much about this from some European countries, especially the UK.
It is not an exaggeration to claim that an independent, vibrant, and engaged civil society is one of the unique indicators of a liberal democracy. The fact that they are a benefit, not a cost, is most evident in security trust networks. Democratic governments would do well to support them as a centerpiece in Whole of Nation cyber security.
Alexander Klimburg is a Fellow at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs. Since joining the Institute in October 2006, he has worked on a number of government national security research projects. Alexander has partaken in international and inter-governmental discussions, and he acts as a scientific advisor on cyber security to the Austrian delegation to the OSCE as well as other bodies. He is regularly consulted by national and international media as well as private businesses.
Chapter 14. Conducting Operations in the Cyber-Space-Time Continuum
The United States, NATO, and the European Union all participate in cyber warfare games in order to create scenarios that can be utilized for offensive and defensive planning. However, many of these scenarios