Publications

Revelations about Stuxnet and Flame have provoked a chorus of dire warnings on the dangers of cyber warfare and the need for action. Yet the most troubling question to emerge from these revelations is why, if cyber warfare is such a critical issue, are so many people so badly informed about it? Suggestions that Stuxnet or Flame have increased risk are based on a faulty understanding of how much risk already exists in cyberspace, the already high frequency of state-sponsored malicious cyber action, and the rapid growth in many countries’ military capabilities. It is, rather, more accurate to see Stuxnet and Flame as episodes in the ongoing contests between the US, Iran, and Russia.