Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander on Cyber Crime: It’s Time to Punch Back

Now, is the time for the U.S. to fire back both swiftly and strongly against cyber attacks, according to Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency and the Obama administration’s nominee to be the head of the new Cyber Command. Alexander told Congress  that we should act to counter a threat even when the identity of the attacker is not known. He also said that we should take preemptive action against countries like Iran and North Korea — in case they may launch a cyber attacks.

These are very reassuring words. And frankly we have needed a leader to take an aggressive approach to dealing with cyber crime. As we all know though, this a very complex issue and many cultural issues are at play. You may recall our post last year about how hackers in Russia are perceived as being heroes because they rob from the “greedy westerners.” And, we definitely urge you to check out the 60 Minutes segment in that post as well.

What do you all think? Alexander had some strong, and much needed words. And, the good news is that there seems to be some action behind this words. Check out this article about the Air Force doing cyber war training.