美国国家公共电台 NPR The U.S. Pledges A Harder Line In Cyberspace — And Drops Some Hints（在线收听）

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Efforts to stop Russia from interfering in U.S. elections come from two of the most secretive parts of the U.S. government the National Security Agency and Cyber Command. They worked side by side at the same sprawling campus in Fort Meade Maryland where the NSA monitors foreign communications. While cyber command takes action in the digital realm the army general who heads them both is a proponent of more aggressive measures. Here's NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: It's a pleasure to introduce to you the commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, General Paul Nakasone.

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GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Paul Nakasone usually doesn't say much in public. But recently, he's been on what amounts to a PR blitz. Here he is, in short sleeves and no tie, addressing a high-tech confab in San Francisco.

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PAUL NAKASONE: I have all the authorities that I need right now to conduct full-spectrum operations. That's defensive operations all the way to offensive operations. And when I don't have those authorities, I will certainly ask for them.

MYRE: Nakasone is driving home the point that the U.S. needs to directly confront rivals in cyberspace. Here's what he said on Capitol Hill about countering Russian attempts to meddle in last fall's midterm elections.

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NAKASONE: For the first time, we sent our cyberwarriors abroad. We sent defensive teams forward in November to three different European countries. That's acting outside of our borders that imposed costs against our adversaries.

MYRE: Over the past decade, the U.S. has been wrestling with the question of how to deal with cyberattacks. What's the proper response when China steals high-tech secrets from a U.S. company or when North Korea hacks into Sony because that country doesn't like a satirical movie about its leader Kim Jong Un? Nakasone made clear he wanted to take a harder line at his confirmation hearing a year ago. Here he responds to Alaska senator Dan Sullivan.

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DAN SULLIVAN: What do you think our adversaries think right now? If you do a cyberattack on America, what's going to happen to them?

NAKASONE: So basically, I would say right now they do not think that much will happen to them.

SULLIVAN: They don't fear us?

NAKASONE: They don't fear us.

MYRE: President Trump has given Nakasone more authority, but this approach raises two big questions. First, will other countries stop attacking the U.S.? Probably not. Second, will this ignite a cycle of retaliation and escalation? No one really knows. But we are getting a peek behind the curtain, says P. W. Singer, a cyber expert at the New America think tank.

P W SINGER: So you're seeing a change from keeping everything classified, not talking about anything to trying to share a little bit more information. And the reason is a belief that if you create awareness, it makes the attacker's job harder.

MYRE: The U.S. now routinely names and shames hackers.

THOMAS RID: A lot of countries can hack.

MYRE: That's Thomas Rid of Johns Hopkins University who says not a lot of countries can figure out who did the hacking. The U.S. can. Robert Mueller's team indicted 25 Russians for election interference by name and with details that could only be obtained by hacking their computers.

RID: So finding out who hacked you, finding the evidence and then assessing the evidence in a professional way - the attribution capabilities, these are hard to develop.

MYRE: The NSA took another unusual step recently, making one of its own software programs available to the public for free. It's called Ghidra, and it reverse-engineers malware that's been detected in a computer system. Now anyone can download Ghidra to analyze malware and figure out how best to combat it. Of course, the NSA has its own history of planting malware abroad, notes author James Bamford, who's written about the agency for decades.

JAMES BAMFORD: The Russians plant malware and look for openings in various infrastructure in the United States. It's exactly the same thing we do in other countries. It's not necessarily an act of aggression; it's just normal espionage.

MYRE: Whatever you call it, Nakasone says it's here to stay.

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NAKASONE: I think this is a new normal. It can't be episodic. You have to be involved every day. You have to be aware of what your adversary is doing.

MYRE: Planning, he says, is already underway to protect the 2020 election.

Greg Myre, NPR News, Washington.

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