It is about time CIA!

The Central Intelligence Agency announced last week that it is creating a new top-level directorate called the Directorate of Digital Innovation.  This is one of the most sweeping changes to the agency since it was established in 1947.  According to reports, the directorate will combine several existing units, including the Information Operations Center, which evaluates threats to U.S. computer systems and also engages in its own cyberespionage.  The new structure also incorporates the Open Source Center, which, among other things, monitors social media and foreign websites.

When I first read the announcement I was amazed that it has taken the CIA so long to identify cyber war as a critical threat to the United States. Or as Bart Simpson might interject, “DUH.”  Yes, cyber-security indeed deserves “top-level” attention.

Cyber-attacks might well be much more devastating than more traditional guns-and-missile attacks that we have been spending billions of dollars to defend against.  With most every aspect of modern life controlled by some digital device linked to other digital devices, any interruption in that communication could be devastating.  Our ability to carry out financial transactions or our ability to flush our toilets could be prevented by a strategically placed line of malicious code in some computer or network.

Many of us have experienced what happens at work when “the server goes down” or when the internet connection is off line.  At most offices, productivity drops to almost zero.  We are paralysed. I know of several instances when employees were sent home.

If some foreign miscreants were able to successfully hack our key networks and interrupt the flow of information on the internet, we would be cast into chaos.  Planes wouldn’t fly, electricity wouldn’t flow and commerce would cease—all without one bullet fired or one bomb dropped.

I am sure that the CIA and other government agencies are well aware of the high stakes of preventing such an attack, but I don’t think that most Americans place enough importance on this issue.  For many, an interruption in internet connectivity means an inconvenience of having to wait to see the new episode of “House of Cards.”  Hmmm, a “house of cards”: how appropriate!