New rules, big problems
On the state GDP of Wyoming, asymmetric conflict, and the problem with inconsistent policymaking in a time of cyberwarfare
Citing a report from Daily NK, TechCrunch says that North Korea is establishing a new hacker group within its intelligence service. The reports indicate that the group is going to focus on offensive hacking (like digital theft) while operating around-the-clock.
â– It's hard for those who had their formative years between the end of World War II and the dissolution of the Soviet Union to contextualize what the world's threats look like today. The two-superpower world of the classic Cold War didn't really make much room to consider countries as big as India, much less a nation like North Korea -- which, at 26 million people, is only slightly more populous than Florida, but with an economy so small that it's 20% smaller than Wyoming's.
â– But asymmetric techniques of warfare and conflict change that. If North Korea has just enough talented individuals, a modest Internet connection, and a few laptops, then it has enough capacity to potentially do consequential damage even to a country as large as the United States -- provided that it has no scruples about how the damage is done and nothing really to lose from being punished on the global stage. It's already a nation fundamentally cut off from the Internet; there's little left for it to lose.
â– Getting used to those systemic imbalances takes a level of adaptive thinking that not everyone in high office is prepared to demonstrate. The threat is very real and the damage that could be done is quite substantial. If our adversaries are unbounded by expectations of rules and norms, then our defenses must be robust and consistent. Inconsistent policy behavior will only impose costs in one direction: On ourselves.
