Security News > 2021 > May > Operating in the Shadows: US Cyber Command

If the Pentagon's Cyber Command launches an online attack and nobody knows about it, does it deter anyone?

Many Americans are asking what the country's army of cyber warriors are doing after repeated attacks on US computer systems by Chinese, Russian and other hackers.

No one knows who took control of Darkside's servers, a week after the shady Russia-based hackers forced the closure of a major US oil pipeline, causing gasoline shortages across the Eastern US. But suspicions are that the 10-year-old CyberCom may have stepped in, to punish Darkside and to signal the small army of ransomware providers operating out of Eastern Europe that they too are vulnerable.

Since then the US government and private business have been hit time and time again, by Chinese stealing government databases and corporate secrets, Russia hacking US elections, North Koreans stealing bitcoins, and ransomware operators extorting hundreds of millions of dollars from companies, hospitals, and local authorities.

"It's very, very difficult, if not impossible, to deter adversarial activities in cyberspace. So what CyberCom needs to be able to do is be constantly engaged, constantly operating forward in the adversaries' networks," said Lindsay.

Lindsay said the US and its main adversaries now treat cyber conflict as a way of avoiding escalation.

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