Pentagon's cyber strategy aims to quell fears of militarizing cyberspace

The Pentagon plans on July 14 to release a much-anticipated cyberspace operations strategy that, contrary to some expectations, does not call for militarizing the domain.

According to an unclassified draft copy of the framework, the goal is to extinguish any hope enemies may have of accomplishing a destructive attack. The Defense Department will build new "active defenses" -- sensors, software and digital signatures -- into military networks to detect and stop malicious code before it ever affects operations, according to the document. "Too many of our adversaries would gamble that we could not attribute the attack to them," according to a draft of the remarks Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III is expected to make. "Far from militarizing cyberspace, our strategy of securing networks to deny the benefit of an attack will help dissuade military actors from using cyberspace for hostile purposes." Defense cannot monitor civilian networks, however, which presents a challenge, since 99 percent of the electricity it consumes is distributed through private sector systems and 90 percent of military communications travel over commercial and residential networks. To address the security gap, the department will provide some industry partners with classified intelligence on threats for self-help purposes.