Cyber Warfare in the Next Administration

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF) hosted a breakfast discussion with former Director of the CIA and the NSA General Michael Hayden on Friday, November 18, from 8:30am to 9:45am. He was in conversation with Dr. Samantha Ravich, CSIF Board Member and Senior Advisor focused on cyber-enabled warfare.

At the National Security Agency, General Hayden recognized cyberspace as a domain of warfare along with land, sea, air and space. Unlike warfare domains of the past, cyber is entirely man-made. This timely conversation discussed the range of cyber threats facing the next administration, including “hybrid warfare” being waged by Russia as described in FDD’s recent report. They discussed what may come next in the ongoing cyber feuds between the United States and its adversaries.

Following Russia’s declaration of the United States as a national security threat, the U.S. Department of Defense’s updated Cyber Strategy did the same by naming Russia as the top threat to American interests and security. Meanwhile, an isolated North Korea, operating under few constraints in the cyber space, has proven to be a regional and international threat. Chinese hackers seem to have pivoted away from hacking the U.S. to targeting others in the region – at least for now. And Iran and Syria are standing-up their own cyber armies. The next president will face an increasingly complex cyber environment. What tools do the public and private sector in the United States have to combat rogue regimes and geopolitical foes? Can and will Russian interference crumble our centuries old institutions, and how will we defend against any meddling in elections?

General Michael Hayden is a retired four-star United States Air Force general who served as director of the CIA and the NSA when the course of world events was changing at an ever accelerating rate. As head of the country’s keystone intelligence-gathering agencies, he was on the frontline of geopolitical strife and the war on terrorism. Gen. Hayden became director of CIA in May of 2006, capping a career in service to the United States that included nearly 40 years in the Air Force. He served as director until 2009. From 2005 to 2006, Gen. Hayden was the country’s first principal deputy director of national intelligence and the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the country. After being appointed by then President Bill Clinton, Gen. Hayden had served as the director of the NSA and chief of the Central Security Service (CSS) from 1999 to 2005. His current affiliation is Principal at The Chertoff Group and a distinguished visiting professor at the George Mason University School of Policy, Government and International Affairs. His recent memoir, Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror, has been a New York Times best-seller. Gen. Hayden serves on FDD’s Leadership Council.

Dr. Samantha Ravich is a Senior Advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance where she focuses on cyber-enabled economic warfare. She also serves on the CSIF Board of Advisors. Dr. Ravich advises private industry and Federal and State governments on international security, financial, and political risk. She was the Republican Co-Chair of the Congressionally-mandated National Commission for Review of Research and Development Programs in the United States Intelligence Community. Dr. Ravich is now the CEO of A2P, LLC, a social media analysis firm. She is also a Senior Advisor to The Chertoff Group and serves on the Board of Directors for DroneShield, an acoustic-based drone detection company. She was Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney and served in the White House for five and a half years where she was the Vice President’s representative on Asian and Middle East Affairs as well as on Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Proliferation. In 2000, Cambridge University Press published her book, Marketization and Democracy: East Asian Experiences, which is used as a basic textbook in international economics, political science, and Asian studies college courses.