3 . Information Systems Security

The greater the military leverage that C4I systems provide for U.S. forces, the larger the incentives are for an opponent to attack those systems. Indeed, it makes little sense for an opponent to challenge the U.S. “symmetrically”, i.e., force-on-force. More likely avenues of challenge are “asymmetric”, i.e., avenues that exploit potential U.S. vulnerabilities. Attacking U.S. C4I systems – whether directly or indirectly (e.g., through the U.S. civilian information infrastructure on which DOD C4I systems often depend)—is only one of many asymmetric attacks, but such an attack is one for which the U.S. must be adequately prepared.