The Naval War College Foundation Center for Cyber Conflict Studies The Campaign for Cybersecurity
contents Defending Cyberspace...page 2 Cyberspace... 4 What is Cyberspace... 6 Cybersecurity... 8 Averting a Cyber 9/11...10 The U.S. Naval War College...12 The Center for Cyber Conflict Studies...14 The Naval War College Foundation...16
Defending Cyberspace A National Priority in a Digital World At times the world seems to be changing before our eyes and nowhere is that more evident than in the world of Cyber. The Naval War College, as it has throughout its history, sails at the nexus of strategy, tactics, and technology in ways that will allow us to better prepare ourselves for the immense challenges ahead in this brave new world of Cybersecurity. Admiral James G. Stavridis, USN (Ret.) Supreme Allied Commander Europe 2009-2013 Dean, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University page 2
page 4 Cyberspace
cyberspace Imagine it. It makes modern communication possible. It connects our satellites, phones, and computers. It enables our electronics and appliances. It is critical to our manufacturing, distribution, and consumption. It is the basis of our banking and payments systems. It underpins our economy and infrastructure. It connects the global economy. It is the backbone of command and control for our national defense. It stores our wealth and treasure. It makes America function. It is becoming the dominant platform for life in this century. It is Cyberspace. Imagine America without it. Imagine our vulnerability with it. Cyberspace has long since become far more than the technology that gave rise to it. People, technology, and process are inextricably intertwined in a manner that yields both the engine of global transformation we have come to cherish and the flawed enterprise that imperils our secrets, wealth, and treasure. Chris Inglis, The U.S. Naval Academy Robert and Mary M. Looker Distinguished Visiting Professor for Cyber Operations Deputy Director NSA 2006-2014 page 5
What is Cyberspace? If you use a keyboard, you are an operator in Cyberspace. VADM Jan Tighe Commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command Commander, U.S. TENTH Fleet page 6
Cyberspace is the world of inter-connected computer networks that store and move data, melding people, technology and process into a global web that is, quite simply, the online universe of our digital world. Cyberspace is unregulated. It has no natural or defensible borders. It crosses nations and the globe with no sovereign territory. Cyberspace has created great benefits to humanity on an unprecedented scale in human history. Interconnectedness and openness have created mass efficiencies and value creation around the global economy. Yet the open architecture of Cyberspace risks massive disruption to our modern life. Openness is exploitable and increasingly exploited by actors possessing little more than access to the internet. We Americans have become reliant on Cyberspace for the conduct of our daily lives. Cyberspace is vulnerable, and so are we as individuals, organizations, and a nation. Defending and securing Cyberspace is a national priority in a globally connected world. All of us have a stake in Cybersecurity for the digital and physical world in which we reside. Cyberspace is becoming the dominant platform for life in the 21st Century. Peter Singer, Senior Fellow, New America Foundation page 7
Cybersecurity What is it? Why does it matter? page 8
C Cybersecurity is a recently invented word. Yet its importance is timeless in the Cyber Age. Cybersecurity is the protection of computer equipment, software, and networks in Cyberspace from unauthorized access, manipulation, and destruction. Cybersecurity seeks to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of data while allowing authorized access whenever and wherever desired. Cybersecurity is vitally important in a digitally dependent and dangerous world. The harsh reality of our times is that Cyberspace is increasingly under attack. Cyber attacks are often anonymous by unauthorized parties seeking access to private and public data networks. Cyberspace is threatened by so-called bad actors, a Cyber term for those who violate the trust and privacy of secured networks through Cyber attacks, including: hostile governments and proxies; state sponsored and non-state terror groups; criminal organizations and networks; activists, hactivists, and individuals. Their motives to act badly, with ill and malicious intent, are varied: Some bad actors attack because they can. Most attack to disrupt and gain an advantage, whether political, economic or commercial. All attackers violate property, privacy, and security. Bad actors have an asymmetric advantage in Cyberspace: they seek and gain unauthorized access at low cost for potentially high benefits with surprisingly low risk of discovery or punishment. The risk-reward equation for bad Cyber actors is in their favor, as are the odds of success: Bad actors only have to gain access once. Cybersecurity has to deny access every time. Cyber attacks can be initiated from anywhere in the world with a computer device and the Internet. Military assets are not needed in their assault. Attacks often come without warning and always at the speed of light. The damage to physical assets and infrastructure can be devastating with a computer command click. Public and private networks are equally vulnerable. Governments, companies, and individuals will spend billions of dollars to protect against Cyber intrusions. Even the most protected and prepared can only react once an attack has been detected. Globalization and Cyberspace are deeply intertwined. American society has steadily institutionalized, and lived by, openness to global commerce, finance, travel, and information flows. Cyberspace offers both new capabilities and new threats, leaving their targets without a traditional means of response, such as retaliatory force or criminal prosecution. In the Cyber Age, vast amounts of valuable information will be stolen. Financial assets will be compromised. Supply chains will be tainted. Value and property will be destroyed. Wealth will be illegally transferred from countries, companies, and individuals. While the risks in Cyberspace have become more apparent in recent times to a broader audience, Cybersecurity has traditionally been an obscure focus of professionals specializing in largely technical disciplines. Given the escalating risks and frequency of Cyber attacks broadly in our society and economy, Cybersecurity now matters to us all, across all disciplines, roles, and sectors. It will be inescapably and visibly a clear and present danger to our way of life. Cyber crime represents the greatest wealth transfer in history. General Keith Alexander, USA (Ret.) Commander, U.S. Cyber Command 2010-2014 Director, National Security Agency 2005-2014 Chief, Central Security Service 2005-2014 page 9
Averting a Cyber 9/11 A Call to Arms Because Cyberspace is essential to modern society, no dimension of conflict or warfare remains untouched by Cyberspace. Peter Dombrowski Professor, U.S. Naval War College page 10
Cybersecurity will require a constant battle in Cyberspace against rapidly and persistently evolving threats. In a risk matrix involving terrorism, the stakes are particularly high. If we fail to protect our cyber networks, we risk potentially massive damage throughout our interconnected data networks, national economy, and infrastructure, including destruction, degradation, manipulation and neutralization of America s: Banking system, capital markets & exchanges National defense and military systems Supply chains of production, distribution, and commerce Satellite and communications systems Internet websites, email, e-commerce Physical infrastructure (dams, chemical plants, water systems) Air transportation system Ground transportation and logistics networks Power grids and assets (nuclear, electrical, gas, oil, LNG) Electronic security systems of physical installations & homes Video surveillance systems in public and private security Hospital equipment and medical devices Homeland Security and law enforcement A digital attack on any one of these sectors could be the equivalent of a Cyber 9/11, as warned by the esteemed Chairmen of the 9/11 Commission in their capacity currently as Chairmen of the Bipartisan Policy Center s Homeland Security Project, where they warn: Attacks in the digital world can inflict serious damage in the physical world. We are constantly at war in the digital world. We must become vigilant and take action as a nation to develop a Cybersecurity strategy in the public and private sectors. Cybersecurity is critical to the stability of our economy, society, and national security. Cybersecurity will require a national effort with collaboration by all who have a stake in its continuity. This will require leadership by American business professionals, private individuals, academics, policy makers, government officials, our intelligence community and military leaders. Unlike other national interests, Cyberspace is too pervasive for any one individual, organization, sector, or government to serve as the guarantor of its security. The breadth and scope of Cybersecurity requires us all to be involved in partnerships, both public and private, to be effective in safeguarding our interests. We are at war in the digital world. And yet, because this war lacks attention -grabbing explosions and body bags, the American people remain largely unaware of the danger. That needs to change. Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton Chairman and Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission Co -Chairmen of the Homeland Security Project page 11
The U.S. Naval War College A Tradition of Leadership in National Security Change continual, unremitting change is the law of the universe. It is not enough for us to keep abreast of the times. This College must be in the very front rank of the advance guard of progress. The War College is a place of original research on all questions relating to war and to statesmanship connected with war, or the prevention of war. Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce, U.S. Navy Address delivered at the U.S. Naval War College, 1903 page 12
NWC The Naval War College has been the home of strategic thought to the United States Navy for more than a century. For the past 130 years, this national academic and policy institution in Newport, Rhode Island has provided intellectual leadership to the U.S. Navy and the nation. The Naval War College provides direct support to the U.S. Navy and government agencies across the national security spectrum. Since its inception, war-gaming has been a core competency of the institution with evolving national security threats and requirements. The Naval War College is poised to serve as a national focal point for Cybersecurity policy and strategy formulation, as part of its continuous mission to remain at the vanguard of national security challenges. As a strategic and operational thought leader, the Naval War College can play an important role in developing a 21st century Cybersecurity strategy for America. Cyber is going to be foundational to the warfighting construct of the future. Admiral Michael S. Rogers, USN Commander, U.S. Cyber Command Director, National Security Agency Chief, Central Security Service page 13
page 14 The Center for Cyber Conflict Studies
NWC The Naval War College established the Center for Cyber Conflict Studies in 2011 as the foundation for all Cybersecurity initiatives. The Center will serve as an institutional nexus of research to advance national defense policies and strategy in addressing increasing Cybersecurity threats to the Navy, the nation, and our allies. The Naval War College is committed to equipping graduates with relevant knowledge to think and operate strategically in Cyber operations, whether in a battlefield capability or the dangerous current environment of continuous Cyber conflict. The Center will analyze policy and strategy developments across all national domains and will make recommendations on Cybersecurity measures with implications beyond military domains. The Center will serve as a convening authority for government, academic, policy, and business organizations to collaborate on Cybersecurity for our nation s security in all sectors of society: military, civilian, public and private. In practice, the Center will function as an intellectual and policy clearinghouse on major issues related to Cyberspace and the turbulence in security of networked technologies and organizations. The Center s academic faculty will conduct selective and original research to be shared with civilian and military agencies in the public and private sector. The Center will advance the Naval War College s mission to provide the Margin of Excellence in Cyber strategy relevant to government, military, intelligence, academia, and corporate organizations in this highly specialized, rapidly evolving, and vitally important domain of national Cybersecurity. The Naval War College is a uniquely experienced national asset capable of systematically evaluating the potential range of impact to American interests from Cyber attacks and threats. Few national institutions have the experience and ability to address potential systemic risk failures to our national infrastructure through Cyber attacks affecting the nation s capital markets, banking and payments systems, electrical and power grids, communication networks, aviation and transportation sectors, and hospitals and medical care centers, among other assets. The Naval War College has a long history of contingency planning through war-gaming exercises that have proven vitally important in our nation s history. War-gaming skills and technologies have strong potential application in evaluating Cyber attack scenarios and developing optimal strategies for managing and neutralizing threats. The Naval War College s expertise in Cybersecurity has evolved with U.S. Navy strategy in the Cyber Age. Since 2011, the year the Center was established, the U.S. Navy has prepared doctrinally to fight in the Fifth Domain of Engagement (Cyberspace) in addition to the traditional four domains of Air, Land, Sea, and Space. The U.S. Navy has integrated Cyber planning into the development, deployment, operation, and sustainability of naval operations for years. The collective expertise and experience of U.S. Navy Cyber defense measures will be an invaluable asset to the Center for Cyber Conflict Studies. The Center for Cyber Conflict Studies will further strengthen the role of the Naval War College as a strategic thought leader for the Navy and the nation in an era of escalating conflict in Cyberspace. The Naval War College will endeavor to remain at the forefront of national security policy and strategy in the 21st century with the establishment of the Center for Cyber Conflict Studies. We will continue to lead the way, as we have since our founding in 1884. RADM P. Gardner Howe, III, USN 55th President, U.S. Naval War College page 15
The Naval War College Foundation Providing the Margin of Excellence through Private Philanthropy The U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Naval War College have both greatly benefited from their respective Foundations support. Private philanthropy has clearly redefined our ability to achieve the Margin of Excellence possible for our future leaders of the nation. VADM Walter E. Ted Carter, USN 62nd Superintendent, U.S. Naval Academy 54th President, U.S. Naval War College page 16
NWCF The Naval War College Foundation is leading the campaign for private philanthropic support of the Center for Cyber Conflict Studies. The campaign will raise capital to endow and support specific academic initiatives not funded by the U.S. Navy or governmental sources. Corporations, foundations, and private individuals are filling the void where government funding is not available. The campaign is a critical factor in the success of the Center s mission in establishing Cybersecurity policy and strategy for the nation s security. A campaign to raise private monies for a national interest is not unique to the Naval War College Foundation. Many privately funded initiatives for ostensibly public purposes have successfully achieved their objectives in America s philanthropic history. Public-private partnerships range from supporting national assets such as the Smithsonian Museum to restoring the Washington Monument with private funding and numerous other philanthropic endeavors large and small for a public benefit. page 17
If Cybersecurity is a national interest, why is private philanthropy needed for the Center for Cyber Conflict Studies at the Naval War College? Prospective Donor page 18 page 18
As an academic institution, the Naval War College has similar requirements to the many publicly funded American universities in all fifty states that benefit from, and require, private endowments and foundations to support their full operations. As a military academic institution, the College shares in common with the U.S. military service academies a commitment to providing the Margin of Excellence through private foundation support. This model of public-private support has been essential to bridging the gap between baseline government funding and higher levels required for these institutions to achieve excellence on par with peer institutions. The Naval War College is prohibited by federal law from seeking external financial support. The Naval War College Foundation, as a separate, not-forprofit 501(c)3, solicits private funds to support and advance the work of the Naval War College. These private funds allow the Naval War College scholars to maintain academic independence and pursue innovative research unfettered by federal budget oversight. The impact of the Naval War College Foundation on campus, and throughout the U.S. Navy, is significant. Since its founding in 1969, the Naval War College Foundation has worked with private donors to establish endowments, to support named academic chairs and lecture series, and to establish awards and prizes in recognition of academic excellence and achievement in various disciplines. The Foundation also provides unrestricted funds to support components of education deemed critical, yet unfunded, by the federal government. In times of fiscal crises, the Foundation has been vital for support. In 2013, the federal budget standoff jeopardized the operations of the Naval War College. Through the support of private donors, the Naval War College Foundation was able to provide funding on short notice to ensure continuity of research, travel, and programmatic content. By contrast, many federally funded government initiatives were defunded and suspended. Patriotic philanthropy has supported the Naval War College for five decades. The Foundation s donors directly impact the Margin of Excellence at the Naval War College. With federal budget dollars diminishing, private support is essential. Private philanthropy is particularly critical now given the immediacy of the Cybersecurity threat facing our nation. Cybersecurity is vital to our national interests and will be so for the foreseeable future. The Center for Cyber Conflict Studies is leading the effort on behalf of the nation to develop timely strategies for prevention of Cyber attacks that could cripple our national infrastructure. Philanthropic support is critical to the success of this public good for America. We invite you to join us in this campaign of patriotic philanthropy to support the Naval War College s leadership in Cybersecurity for the nation. Supporting the Naval War College has been an honor for our family and a priority in our philanthropic budget. The Center for Cyber Conflict Studies is among the highest impact initiatives we could support with clear benefit to the nation. Philip M. Bilden Trustee, Naval War College Foundation Chairman, Center for Cyber Conflict Studies Task Force page 19
Naval War College Foundation, Inc. 686 Cushing Road Newport, Rhode Island 02841-1213 www.nwcfoundation.org