Research and Development Corporation or RAND in its recent report on cyber terrorism, has stated that the United States’ best option as of now to avoid a cyber attack on its infrastructure is to keep it cyber anti-terrorism efforts on the defensive, instead of searching for offensive opportunities.

The U.S has already designated a special military unit to combat the threat the cyber threat. The unit known as the Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), is primarily responsible for the protection of the defense and civilian networks of the United States and can also be deployed to mount an information warfare attack on its enemies.

The report titled, ‘Cyberdeterrence and Cyber War’. strongly advises the U.S authorities to concentrate on keeping their networks clean and clear, all the while avoiding an offensive attack. Though the reports suggests not to engage in offensive cyber actions, yet it emphasizes on the fact that, a properly formulated, one time strike could be beneficial for the agencies. For example, an offensive cyber attack could be mounted to shut down an enemy’s surface to air missile batteries, thus clearing a path for the inbound fighters to destroy the target, that could be a bunker, a nuclear facility etc.

According to Martin C. Libicki (Author, Cyberdeterrence & Cyber War),

“Attempting a cyberattack in the hopes that success will facilitate a combat operation may be prudent; betting the operation’s success on a particular set of results may not be. One question planners should ask is whether strategic cyberwar would induce political compliance comparable to what could be produced by, say, strategic air power.”

The report further focuses on the fact that jail terms, fines and retaliatory strikes do little to deter the hackers from conducting a cyber assault. Hence, preventing such attacks take precedence over going after the infrastructure of the culprits.

Via Cnet.