Cybersecurity policy looking more like ballistic policy

President Barack Obama has the authority to initiate a preventive cyber strike if there is threat of an attack on the United States, meaning that the United States now has the authority to attack foreign nations, in the cyber domain, regardless of whether the country is already involved in conflict with them, HSToday reported.

That authority speaks to how serious the United States believes cybersecurity is, bloggers on the homeland security website wrote. Cyber weapons are now comparable to the country’s ballistic nuclear missile arsenal, which is also under the president’s jurisdiction. This is a heated topic since it’s still a challenge to verify if a future enemy attack is imminent or not, so it boils down to whether or not the United States will steer this authority in the direction of being a deterrence to threats.

Jarno Limnéll, director of cybersecurity for Stonesoft, and Jan Hanska is an officer in the Finnish Defense Forces are advocating that the U.S. quickly deinte a do-not-cross line, that if crossed will trigger a cyber response.