As Military Prepares for Cyber-Offensive, Attention Turns to Snowden

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum today, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter confirmed that the military is poised to deploy 4,000 people to a “cyberoffense” operation. What this means is 4,000 US military personnel conducting Internet-based attack worldwide.

In the era of Edward Snowden and NSA surveillance, this announcement sets off a lot of red flags about government overreach and the impact of military operations on ordinary Americans.

Oddly though, Carter seemed less concerned with that than with selling the assembled officials and press on the idea that the Pentagon’s hostility toward information-sharing would keep what they’re doing from going public, hyping the “two-man rule” of keeping someone watching every computer system administrator.

“We don’t let people all by themselves do anything,” Carter said, insisting the Snowden situation was a “mistake” and that the Cyber Command’s policy would avoid similar “mistakes.”