A Non-Trivial Editing Matter at U.S. Strategic Command?

Herb Lin
Monday, March 10, 2014, 9:52 AM
Here's a random tidbit. U.S. Cyber Command is a subcommand of the U.S. Strategic Command.  On the Stratcom web site is a fact sheet about U.S. Cyber Command. According to Internet archives, on May 27, 2012, the fact sheet for U.S.

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Here's a random tidbit. U.S. Cyber Command is a subcommand of the U.S. Strategic Command.  On the Stratcom web site is a fact sheet about U.S. Cyber Command. According to Internet archives, on May 27, 2012, the fact sheet for U.S. Cyber Command said the following about USCYBERCOM’s mission:
USCYBERCOM is responsible for planning, coordinating, integrating, synchronizing, and directing activities to operate and defend the Department of Defense information networks and when directed, conducts full-spectrum military cyberspace operations (in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations) in order to ensure U.S. and allied freedom of action in cyberspace, while denying the same to our adversaries.
Between then and now, the text has been revised, and as of March 8, 2014, the corresponding fact sheet says the following:
USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.
That is, the reference to operating "in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations" has been somewhat conspicuously removed. I am personally convinced that the new fact sheet does not reflect any change in mission or lessened commitment to operating under law.  But perhaps the editor of the USCYBERCOM fact sheet might want to consider reinserting the text that was deleted from the earlier version before someone gets the wrong idea.

Dr. Herb Lin is senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and Hank J. Holland Fellow in Cyber Policy and Security at the Hoover Institution, both at Stanford University. His research interests relate broadly to policy-related dimensions of cybersecurity and cyberspace, and he is particularly interested in and knowledgeable about the use of offensive operations in cyberspace, especially as instruments of national policy. In addition to his positions at Stanford University, he is Chief Scientist, Emeritus for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies, where he served from 1990 through 2014 as study director of major projects on public policy and information technology, and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar and Senior Fellow in Cybersecurity (not in residence) at the Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies in the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Prior to his NRC service, he was a professional staff member and staff scientist for the House Armed Services Committee (1986-1990), where his portfolio included defense policy and arms control issues. He received his doctorate in physics from MIT.

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