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assessment (BDA), which became a major intelligence issue during the Persian Gulf War, would be difficult to perform in an information operation. Analysts in Washington (mostly at the CIA) differed with analysts in the field as to the efficacy of the air campaign in the Gulf War. How could BDA be carried out in the more opaque area of information operations? How could it be determined that an enemy’s computer system had been successfully disrupted, or that the enemy had just shut it down when it recognized that an attack was under way? How could it be discovered that the enemy had backup systems? If a successful information warfare attack is a precondition for some type of overt military operation, how can it be determined that the precondition has been satisfied? How much disruption should be caused? Disrupting enemy communications is useful, but should such action preclude, for example, the ability of an enemy headquarters to signal its troops authoritatively that hostilities are to cease? Or, having disrupted the enemy’s ability to communicate, how can an enemy’s offer to cease hostilities, to negotiate, and so on be verified?

Tension exists between two aspects of information operations: computer network exploitation (CNE) and computer network attack (CNA). A hostile or potentially hostile computer network offers two distinct choices. One is trying to break into the network—to find out who is using it for what means, that is, who is communicating on it—and extracting useful intelligence from it, perhaps using it to manipulate those whose network it is. This is CNE. Another is to attack the network (CNA) to destroy whatever capability it represents. However, once a network has been attacked and taken down, it can no longer be exploited. Therefore someone must decide whether it is more useful to allow the network to continue as a means of gaining more intelligence or if it is better to destroy the network.

As the United States learned in Afghanistan, there are targets in the developing world for which information operations are useless and unnecessary. Under the Taliban, the electronic infrastructure of Afghanistan had been allowed to deteriorate to the point where few suitable information operations targets existed.

Turning to the defensive problem, how can it be verified that a particular state or group is responsible for an information operations attack on the United States? As with terrorism and retaliation, the source of the attack is important. Moreover, if the United States were subject to such an attack, what should be the proper response? Retaliate via computers or with weapons? Again, is the response an intelligence action or a military one?

Much of the burden for these operations falls on NSA. Information assurance has long been one of NSA’s two major functions (alongside SIGINT). The director of NSA is now also designated as commander for the Joint Functional Component Command of Network Warfare, which is part of the Strategic Forces Command (STRATCOM).

In his February 2008 Annual Threat Assessment testimony, DNI McConnell discussed the new national cybersecurity initiative. He noted the United States’ increased dependency on and the increased number of attacks against the U.S. cyber infrastructure. The DNI singled out Russia and China of being capable of such attacks but also noted the rising threat from criminals and from terrorists.

DOMINANT BATTLEFIELD AWARENESS

Supporting military forces engaged in combat operations, usually called support to military operations (SMO), is one of the highest intelligence demands. A key aspect of SMO is the concept of dominant battlefield awareness (DBA). At the National Defense University in June 1995, then DCI John M. Deutch (1995-1997) defined DBA as the integration of imagery intelligence (IMINT), SIGINT, and HUMINT to give “commanders real-time, or near real-time, all-weather, comprehensive, continuous surveillance and information about the battlespace in which they operate.... Dominant battlefield awareness, if achieved. will reduce—never totally etiminate