The U.S. Department of Defense has long advocated going on the offensive against criminal gangs and foreign governments that seek (and often succeed) to penetrate U.S. government and military Internet security, and steal information, or sabotage operations. Without much fanfare, the Department of Defense has made preparations to do just that.
Since the military cannot afford to pay enough to recruit qualified software and Internet engineers for this sort of work, it has turned to commercial firms. There are already some out there, firms that are technically network security companies, but will also carry out offensive missions (often of questionable legality, but that has always been an aspect of the corporate security business.)
Some of these firms have quietly withdrawn from the Internet security business, gone dark, and apparently turned their efforts to the more lucrative task of creating Cyber War weapons for the Pentagon.
This is just one aspect of privatized warfare, which I've gone on about over the years. Expensive specialists are initially too new to be uniformed troops. Artillery was first just a bunch of geeky hired technicians, too.
But as companies learn the ropes of cyber-warfare, take care that they keep working for America. Once a company loses a contract with us, they'll want someone else to send money to make payroll and keep the lights on. Who these companies work for after us is of intense interest to us, to say the least.
We don't have much of a choice but to do this if we are to wage war in cyber-space. And it is surely superior to subcontracting out cyber-warfare to cyber-criminals. But there are risks going down this path.
UPDATE: What choice do we have but to hire cyber-warriors?
Security experts have discovered the biggest series of cyber attacks to date, involving the infiltration of the networks of 72 organizations including the United Nations, governments and companies around the world.
Security company McAfee, which uncovered the intrusions, said it believed there was one "state actor" behind the attacks but declined to name it, though one security expert who has been briefed on the hacking said the evidence points to China.
There is a war going on in there.
