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CIA Director John Deutch's Statements on Cyberwar

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[The following is a transcript of CIA Director John Deutch's verbal statement before the Senate Subcommittee on Governmental Operations, which met on June 25, 1996. Near the end of Deutch's statement, Senator Sam Nunn interjects some comments and questions.]

DEUTCH: Mr. Chairman, I'm here to address the subject of foreign information warfare programs and capabilities. Let me begin by giving you the definition that I'm using today for information warfare, by that I mean unauthorized penetrations and/or manipulation of telecommunications and computer network systems. That's the subject I'm addressing, foreign threats to those kinds of systems.

I want to begin by saluting this committee for addressing this important subject. It deserves the attention of the intelligence community. It deserves the attention of the national security community, the law enforcement community, as well as private industry and private citizens.

There are two reasons to be especially concerned about information warfare. First, there is the growing dependence on worldwide information infrastructure through telecommunications and computer networks. Second, both nations and terrorist organizations can with relative ease acquire the techniques to penetrate information systems. That is what is different about this category of threat to our infrastructure from other kinds of threats, the conventional explosives, or nuclear, biological, and chemical.

The growing dependence and relative vulnerability of the infrastructure, the information infrastructure, and secondly, the relative ease with which nations or subnational organizations can gain the techniques necessary for access, for penetration of these networks.

Let me tell you the kind of targets that are threatened by information warfare. First, the domestic infrastructure: both the government sector and the private sector, for example air traffic control, power plants and banks.

The second category of targets which are threatened by information warfare involve international commerce, international funds transfer, international transportation, and of course, international communications.

And finally, information warfare threatens our military forces whether they are deployed in peacetime or during operations in wartime. In some sense, Mr. Chairman, the electron is the ultimate precision-guided weapon.

It can be directed directly, if with appropriate knowledge, it can be directed directly to the command and brain structure of our military systems and our military forces. The electron, in my judgment, is the ultimate precision-guided munition.

Successful attack against systems, however, require more than computer literacy. They require sophisticated computer programming technique. It requires detailed information about the character of the target, the computer network or telecommunications system that you are addressing. And it does in some sense, require access to the target whether by physical or electronic means.

This means that an undefended network will be more vulnerable to attack than a defended network. Although the extent to which full protection can be provided and the cost that it would take to provide such protection is very much a matter of analysis and I might say of dispute at the present time.

Beyond these capabilities, there has to be intent.

The intelligence community has taken some measures to try and estimate both the intent and the capabilities which exist in foreign entities around the world to attack the different kinds of targets that I mentioned before.

First, there is a highly classified intelligence estimate that focuses on foreign attacks on the public-switching telephone network systems of this country, and supervisory control and data acquisition systems -- the control systems that operate some of the critical parts of our infrastructure.

Secondly, separate assessments are available or underway about efforts to limit our information dominance on the battlefield, that you know that information dominance will be an important part of our future military superiority. So, we have studies underway to look at the vulnerabilities to specific tactical, in military situations, attacks against our military forces and systems.

Third, we are alert to the possible future use of information warfare techniques by terrorist groups.

We have a number of specific intelligence community initiatives to address these threats. First, we have new collection activities and priorities designed to develop planned or actual foreign efforts to penetrate network systems. We are working extremely closely with the FBI and the Department of Justice on these issues in the case of targets which are based in the U.S., or where there is foreign criminal involvement.

As you will hear, Mr. Chairman, there is an interagency critical infrastructure security group of which the intelligence community is an active member -- the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice -- who are working together to assess, and put into place, programs and policies to deal with the vulnerability of our domestic infrastructure.

Third, we are forming relationships with industry who are beginning to address this subject on a worldwide basis, where they find themselves in international commerce.

The CIA and the DIA have launched -- the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency -- have launched new analytical initiatives directed towards threat analysis and warning of information capabilities and intentions of foreign countries.

But you said that the National Security Agency, under its new director, General Minihan, is reorganizing its agency to address directly information. An important part of his effort will be to establish a community-wide Information Warfare Technology Center, which will provide us with the tools to deal with this emerging threat.

We have planned periodic. . .

NUNN: Where are you talking about housing that center? Do you have a. . .

DEUTCH: That center will be, in my judgment, housed at the National Security Agency. It will report, in ways yet to be completely defined, to myself and the deputy secretary of defense.

NUNN: Can you plug in the domestic side of that, the domestic law enforcement end of that? Or do you cross jurisdictional lines in domestic versus foreign when you do that?

DEUTCH: My hope would be that this would be the place where we produce tools to deal with these problems whether they are going to be used by domestic agencies which are involved in national security or in intelligence. So it's more of a place to build a tool box, do threat assessment, do analysis, rather than a place to get involved in actual law enforcement or operational decision.

It remains to be worked out, but I personally am committed to seeing the establishment of that center at Fort Meade.

We have a major national intelligence estimate underway which will bring together all parts of the community, including the Department of Justice, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the military, the FBI, criminal units from the Department of Justice in providing a formal intelligence estimate of the character of the threats from foreign sources against the U.S. and foreign infrastructure. We plan to have this estimate complete by December 1 of this year.

Let me stop there, Mr. Chairman, with the following two remarks. Much needs to be done. This is a complex and very difficult subject. We are not well-organized as a government to address these issues. Traditional government methods are not enough. What requires here is a very intense and deep cooperation with industry, those who own, build and operate the civilian infrastructure, and those who are closer to the very rapid technological change which is occurring.

I'm speaking about the need to -- for the protection of our infrastructure. It really requires a different war of addressing what is a very major problem and it is an intellectually demanding problem. It is not one which is absolutely apparent about what is the best way to proceed.

We are committed to continue to work with our colleagues in the executive branch, and to work with Congress on what we consider to be a vital matter and a very, very serious emerging threat to our country and to our allies.

... up next: Sources Download a text-only copy of the "Strategic Assessment: The Internet", prepared by Charles Swett.

CIA & Cyberwar -- DoD's Evaluation -- Deutch's Statement -- Sources

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