As U.S.-Chinese competition enters the cyber-domain, “the United States’ critical infrastructure is unready for battle,” writes Anne Neuberger in a new essay in the forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs. “Chinese malware has been discovered embedded in U.S. energy, water, pipeline, and transportation systems”—while “Chinese water treatment plants, power grids, telecommunications networks, and other critical systems operate with layers of protection that most U.S. systems lack.”
Washington now needs a plan to “reclaim the advantage in the digital battle space,” argues Neuberger. “If the United States succeeds, it can serve as an example of how to achieve the benefits of digitization and a free Internet without compromising its national security.” But if it fails, she warns, the world might come to believe “that democracies are less capable of defending against cyberthreats.”
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