For the last 50 years, an
outside force has never threatened the United States’ nuclear weapons
safety. The United States has
always employed large security forces, secure/remote facilities, and strict
protocols. However, in recent
years, and especially recent months, the U.S. and its allies have come under
increased cyber attack. For
example, in the summer of 2012, alleged Iranian hackers destroyed 30,000
computers of the Saudi Aramco Company.
Chinese hackers have stolen information on important defense projects
from defense contractors. The designs include the PAC-3,
THAAD, and the Navy’s Aegis ballistic-missile defense system. Also schematics on the F/A-18 fighter
jet, the V-22 Osprey, the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and the Navy’s new
Littoral Combat Ship were stolen.
If these systems were compromised, how long until the U.S. nuclear
weapons complex is compromised?
Perhaps it already has been.
Many analysts are worried about the American banking system
or the power grids. However, I
can’t think of a worse situation than if our nuclear weapons were hacked. A nuclear power plant’s controls could
be compromised and next thing we know the US has its own Chernobyl. The US infected the Iranian nuclear
industry with a virus called Stuxnet that severely hindered their progress in
2010. Is the US immune to this
type of attack? In this age of Internet
attacks, any country or group can theoretically attack the United States from a
laptop. These recent escalations
in Internet attacks should signal world governments that the need for nuclear
disarmament is even more imperative.
If a terrorist organization can’t build their own device, then they can
just use one that already exists by hacking the controls or falsifying reports
of an attack. Studies done have
shown that the US nuclear arsenal is indeed vulnerable to a cyber attack.
Technology advances at an incredible rate in this age. Defense systems cannot keep up with the
evolving capabilities of offensive tools.
Simply making the US arsenal no longer fire ready would prevent hackers
from firing one of our nuclear warheads.
The Cold War is over.
Shifting the US’s nuclear arsenal to be able to address the threats of
this age is imperative. We do not
need to be ready for an impending attack from the USSR. Those days are gone. We must now be wary that our security
systems are all vulnerable. We
must protect ourselves from our own systems as much as from foreign attackers. Now it seems nuclear weapons and power
plants are liabilities. Deterrence
will not work in the Internet age.
