The U.S. Military’s Dangerous Embedded Assumptions

"During World War II, the highly classified Magic and Ultra signals intelligence programs gave U.S. and British leaders detailed access to many Japanese and German war plans. In doing so, they played a key role in helping the Allies win the war. Today, extremely sensitive information about U.S. troop and logistics movements, operational maneuvers, and critical battlefield plans resides on the U.S. secret (SIPRNET) and the top secret (JWICS) secure computer networks. The U.S. military assumes that these systems are secure and that adversaries cannot see its most sensitive operational secrets. But that may be a dangerously naive assumption, given the many well-publicized breakdowns in U.S. cyber security (especially the publication of the NSA’s most sensitive hacking tools) and the immense efforts some potential adversaries are devoting to targeting U.S. networks. What if one or more of those adversaries already has, or develops, a well-concealed 21st century version of the Magic or Ultra programs? How would the military operate effectively — or even operate at all — if these most secret networks are compromised?"