Is it possible that the North Koreans launched a July 4 cyber attack on the US government? If so, what’s the appropriate retaliation? Should we turn the electricity in Pyongyang on and off a few times, if we can do it?
The North Koreans are clearly in the midst of some sort of internal meltdown, probably having to do with a succession crisis. The new UN sanctions regime indicates that even the NoKos’ friends have lost patience with them. But the problem is larger than North Korea: cyber attacks have been attempted and defended against for several years. It’s all been hush-hush, but at a certain point this form of warfare becomes general public knowledge. The question is, when and how? Do we use the NK attack–if that’s what it was–to demonstrate to other would-be perpetrators that we have sophisticated capabilities in this area? Cyber warfare is serious business, obviously. It would be interesting to hear the arguments for and against. I’ll check some sources and see what they have to say.