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When the Director of CSIS calls for kinetic responses to cyberattacks, we should all sit up and take note. We should also all be very concerned. The proposed rules of engagement in this article include:The United States can and will use all elements of state power to effectively defend the homeland against any threat, in any domain. The Department of Defense stated a version of this policy in the context of integrated deterrence, but it is worth a high-level official saying it again. The official should point out that U.S. policy refuses to target civilian critical infrastructure, so a proportional response to a cyberattack on our critical infrastructure would be serious and likely include economic or military measures.The article directly calls out the challenges of attribution and understanding of intent, but defaults to a retaliatory stance for reasons that are, in my opinion, deeply hypothetical—especially the hand-wavy claim that "AI" is going to make these threats more dangerous. There is absolutely no evidence for that claim.

The cyberwar might be here, but every day the intelligence community and military make de-escalatory choices about how to respond to these attacks. I contend we're better off for them doing so.

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-united-states-needs-a-new-way-to-think-about-cyber