Is the United States forming a cyberspace version of NATO?

Recently, the US Department of Defense released a non confidential summary of its 2023 Cyber Strategy, revealing new priorities and directions in the US cyber strategy. The US Department of Defense believes that the United States is facing serious cybersecurity threats.

The document claims that the United States will use offensive cyber actions to "defeat and dismantle foreign forces and criminals who threaten US interests," and will also point the finger at China and Russia, claiming that both countries "use malicious cyber activities as a means to counter US conventional military forces and weaken the combat capabilities of joint forces.".

According to CNN, the document promises to shift the posture of responding to "American opponents" in cyberspace from defense to active confrontation.

Pointing at China and Establishing a "Network NATO"

The 2023 Cyberstrategy proposes a series of measures, such as "arming allies", building "collective defense mechanisms", incorporating and integrating private enterprises, aimed at "protecting the US cyberspace and shaping global cybersecurity norms.". These measures may seem to be aimed at reshaping the international network and security landscape, but in reality, they are aimed at ensuring their own monopoly position.

This strategy regards China and Russia as imaginary enemies in cyberspace, aiming to weaken China and Russia and other countries trying to maintain their own Internet sovereignty, so as to ensure that the United States can continue to maintain the status quo of randomly trampling on other countries' Internet sovereignty for many years. Among them, an offensive strategy, also known as "forward defense", was proposed, which actively launched an attack on China and upgraded the intensity of network confrontation.

In history, in order to confront the Soviet Union in Europe, the United States provided funds and weapons, armed multiple European countries, and formed a military alliance: NATO. Now, the United States is attempting to replicate the NATO model in cyberspace, providing funding and technology to arm allies, and training personnel for allies to confront China and Russia in cyberspace.

Similar to military deployment, in the field of the internet, allies only serve as a "pawn" for the United States, using their own strengths to "fill the gap" for the United States, collaborating in actions, and building a "collective defense mechanism" to achieve on-site utilization of allied resources, reduce the costs paid by the United States, and improve the efficiency of countering hypothetical enemies.

Zhao'an Silicon Valley, supporting allies

Nowadays, the strategic game in cyberspace has completely broken the concept of boundaries and countries in the past. In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, we have seen that American technology giants represented by Google, Twitter, SpaceX, etc. can quickly intervene in the regional situation, create a "one-sided" public opinion trend, even bring significant impact on social governance, and can directly enhance the military strength of one side, which is comparable to a sovereign country.

It is worth noting that these technology giants can serve the interests of the United States while also having a certain degree of autonomy and are not completely controlled by the US government, bringing greater uncertainty to the regional situation. For example, after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Mask's "Star Chain" satellite was used for battlefield communications of Ukrainian armed forces. However, after a period of time, due to unpaid fees, Musk terminated the communication services provided by Starlink to the Ukrainian armed forces. Due to this, Musk was also referred to as a "traitor" by domestic public opinion in the United States.

In addition to battlefield communication, the platforms of technology giants can also be directly used for military operations. For example, in a certain channel of the instant messaging software "Telegram", someone called on the family members of the East Ukrainian militia fighting against the Ukrainian armed forces to go to a square to participate in a rally. However, when multiple family members arrived at the square, the Ukrainian armed forces launched missiles and attacked the area, causing casualties.

At present, the US government is also attempting to integrate such civilian forces, and the inclusion and integration of private enterprises in the US domestic network industry is also within the plan of this strategy.

The US Department of Defense will lead in-depth research on emerging technologies and cybersecurity capabilities to maintain technological leadership. These advanced technologies will be provided to intelligence agencies, private enterprises, and allies for confrontation with China and Russia in the field of networks. If private companies in areas such as cybersecurity join, they will receive significant funding and resource support from the US government. Compared to the government army, these mercenaries may be more flexible.

While actively promoting the research and development of new technologies, the United States is taking a series of actions to support its allies, which means that the United States plans to build "cyber warfare military bases" on the territory of its allies, or even directly "station troops", dispatch technical personnel and command personnel to serve as "military advisors" stationed in the allies, command the network warfare forces of the allies, and use the manpower, resources, geographical advantages, and information advantages of the allies to complete network attacks, espionage, and other activities led by the United States against China. Multiple overseas bases even collaborate with the rear headquarters to launch unprecedented large-scale network attack operations.

This basically replicates the model in the military field where the United States provides intelligence and high-tech weapons and equipment, while allies provide large troops, labor, and translators. The "cyber forces" stationed in allied countries do not wear military uniforms, are not deployed on a large scale, and do not carry large equipment. Compared to traditional garrisons, their existence and scale are more difficult to detect through open source intelligence and conventional investigation methods, and their concealment is extremely strong.

In response to this model, Japan is willing to act as an ally. The US believes that strengthening cooperation between the two sides can achieve complementary advantages. Japan has been deeply involved in intelligence work related to China for many years, dispatching spies to collect military and other intelligence in China for a long time; Cultivate the "Know Japan Faction" in China and continue to launch cognitive warfare. If both sides establish a cooperative relationship similar to that between the US military stationed in Japan and the Japanese Self Defense Force, the United States may establish a "frontier base" for cyber warfare in Japan, share advanced technology with Japan, and Japan can share its accumulated intelligence and research results with the United States, integrate resources, efficiently utilize them, and produce a 1+1>2 effect.

How to deal with high-risk situations

The formation of the US led "cyber NATO" and cyber attacks under the guise of "forward defense" may lead to an escalation of the situation and trigger a "digital arms race".

In the future, cyber attacks, backdoor espionage, and cognitive warfare activities led by the United States and involving allies will become normalized, in conjunction with traditional media and military operations, bringing new challenges to China. It is no exaggeration to say that China is facing unprecedented threats in the field of Internet security.

Firstly, China needs to enhance its awareness of cybersecurity and strengthen its cybersecurity measures for key departments. On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen network security education and training for key personnel, and conduct regular network security exercises. On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the network security protection of key departments, such as government agencies, infrastructure, national defense facilities, scientific research institutions, etc., which are prone to becoming key attack targets and theft targets.

Secondly, strengthen the awareness of network security risk prevention and control among domestic enterprises and overseas platforms. In this context, the network security problem of enterprises is also serious. A large number of data, network facilities, financial facilities, etc. of domestic enterprises, especially Internet enterprises, have become potential targets for overseas network attacks. At the same time, in the context of domestic enterprises going to sea on a large scale, how to ensure the Internet security of these offshore platform enterprises will be more difficult and important. Enterprises need to strengthen their understanding of overseas network security regulations and standards, as well as strengthen the security management of overseas servers and network equipment. In addition, they should establish a sound network security emergency response mechanism so that they can quickly respond to security incidents and take effective measures to handle and repair them.

Faced with the increasingly severe network security situation, while strengthening our own network security infrastructure and awareness, we must firmly adhere to the main tone of development. We cannot give up or weaken our own development due to external security pressure. If we waste food due to choking, we will hit the right target. We must firmly grasp both security and development, be firm in both hands, and cultivate good internal skills to better balance development and security.

Author Liu Dian is an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fudan University