Read

Catalyst Contributors Weigh in on Cyber Warfare

By
Learn more about William McKenzie.
William McKenzie
Senior Editorial Advisor
George W. Bush Institute

The current issue of The Catalyst: A Journal of Ideas from the Bush Institute contains several pieces that look at the unfolding challenges in the cyber world.

The ransomware attack that debilitated computers across Europe Friday highlights how cyber attacks are a growing threat to companies and nations alike. The current issue of The Catalyst: A Journal of Ideas from the Bush Institute contains several pieces that look at the unfolding challenges in the cyber world. 

  • Marie O’Neill Sciarrone, former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and now president of Trinity Cyber LLC, defines cyber warfare in her Catalyst essay and how we need policies that match the growth of the cyber domain. As Sciarrone writes, “cyber warfare is a game-changer.” 
  • Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates contends in an interview that his biggest cyber concern is from a non-state actor or a rogue actor like North Korea. Not that nations like Russia don’t possess cyber capabilities, but rogue leaders may basically dare us to retaliate.
  • Admiral Patrick Walsh, former Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet who now is a fellow at SMU’s Tower Center, explains that the cyber world presents a vulnerability because “just about anybody can get in and act on their motivations inside the cyber domain.”
  • General Norton Schwartz, former Chief of Staff for the United States Air Force who now heads Business Executives for National Security, writes that our adversaries have become adaptive in hacking businesses and governments. To defeat them, the military needs to be more nimble in acquiring and developing technologies. 

You can read their essays and interviews — plus those from others — in the spring edition of The Catalyst.