Only Trump can decide when cyberwar turns into real war

Summary

rsac 2026 There's a theoretical red line with cyber warfare. Cross it, and the US will respond with a physical attack like missile strikes. And that line "is whatever the President says it is," according to former NSA boss retired General Paul Nakasone. Nakasone, speaking during an RSA Conference keynote on Wednesday with three other former NSA directors and commanders of US Cyber Command, argued that there shouldn't be a well-defined red line. "The president should have a lot of leeway in which he determines whether or not the nation's going to respond kinetically." Retired US Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, on the other hand, said he thinks there should be a "series of minimums, like loss of life, loss of infrastructure associated with health and well being." Rogers served as the head of the NSA under President Obama in 2014 when North Korean state-sponsored goons hacked Sony Pictures, stole massive amounts of private information, and then deployed data-wiping malware to destroy files and IT infrastructure. "I remember sitting down with President Obama in the aftermath of Sony and North Korea doing a destructive attack against the US company and talking about the criteria for an offensive act," Roger said. Sir, if this had been a Tomahawk missile and had created the same effect, we'd be having a totally different discussion "Because the analogy I used was, sir, if this had been a Tomahawk missile and had created the same effect, we'd be having a totally different discussion," he continued. "My concept was, sir, this is the beginning. You're going to see more of this over time. So what is the criteria we're going to use? Is it cost to repair? Is it time to repair? Is it value - in this case, freedom of speech? Is it a loss of life? Is it a movie? What is the criteria that we're going to use to define what is an offensive act, and therefore permits an offensive response?" All of the retired military officials on stage "have been through this," Rogers said. "We just never ...