In a new strategy to defend military computer networks from cyber attacks, the US Defence Department has defined cyberspace as an "operational domain" — like air, land and sea — which specially trained US forces will defend.
As a part of the new strategy, the Pentagon would add new technology such as sensors, software and signatures as preventive measures as well.
Earlier, the Pentagon had said that it would categorise cyber attacks as acts of war in the defence strategy..
According to a Reuters report, Deputy Defence Secretary William Lynn said the Pentagon aims to deter hackers by fortifying its defences so that hackers do not get the benefit of the attack.
"Our strategy’s overriding emphasis is on denying the benefit of an attack," Lynn said.
"If an attack will not have its intended effect, those who wish us harm will have less reason to target us through cyberspace in the first place."
Lynn also said the most sophisticated attacks are based overseas and that "terrorist groups and rogue states must be considered separately."
The websites of the defence forces and contractors working for them have been increasingly subject to hack attacks in the recent months.
Lynn revealed that a cyber attack in March this year compromised 24,000 files of a defence company. He also added that defence industries are estimated to be losing over $1 trillion because of cyber attacks.
However, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright advocates a more offensive strategy to fight cyber crime.
He told reporters, "If it’s OK to attack me and I’m not going to do anything other than improve my defences every time you attack me, it’s very difficult to come up with a deterrent strategy."
"Every time somebody spends a couple hundred dollars to build a virus, we’ve got to spend millions. So we’re on the wrong side of that. We’ve got to change that around," he said.
"How do you build something that convinces a hacker that doing this is going to be costing them and if he’s going to do it, he better be willing to pay the price and the price is going to escalate, rather than his price stays the same and ours escalates," Cartwright said.
"We’ve got to change the calculus."
