Military Review English Edition May-June 2014 | Page 27

FAILED CYBERDEFENSE completely washed away. Fish populations would be decimated along with fisheries that rely upon them. The short-term and long-term effects would be substantial, and restoration efforts could be too costly for the nation to pursue. The environmental damage would be permanent. Chemicals could infiltrate groundwater and make it a health hazard, pollute the air, contaminate the soil, and make land unsuitable for housing, agriculture, and development. Environmental damage could be irreversible if the national cyberdefense failed. U.S. Chemical Industry Environmental Defense The sizeable U.S. chemical industry provides another example of the potential environmental impact of a cyberattack. Manufacturing plants and storage facilities store large quantities of industrial chemicals. The U.S. chemical industry produced $759 billion of chemical products in 2011.9 Over 96 percent of all manufactured products in the United States rely on the input of chemical material. The country produces 15 percent of the world’s chemicals and transports 847 million tons of chemicals on railways, highways, and freight ships each year.10 The transportation routes are adjacent to or passing creeks, rivers, ground water aquifers, urban areas, and agricultural land. These chemical fluids, once released, could create contamination that requires long-term mitigation, restoration, and remediation of affected areas with costs equal to that of an EPA superfund site.11 Defending American infrastructure from cyberattacks is not only protecting information, network availability, or the glob al information grid. It is also safeguarding the lives of citizens, protecting property, and preserving ecosystems and the ecosystem services that we rely on. An attack leading to environmental damages could impact our societal stability.12 The national cyberdefense organized by the Department of Defense and other government agencies is on a “green” mission to ensure cyberattacks do not create irreversible environmental damage within the United States. Successful cyberdefense mitigates the risk for significant damage to domestic freshwater drinking sources, aquatic and adjacent terrestrial ecosystems, and biological diversity. This mission must continue to protect the natural resources essential for life. MR NOTES 1. Barack Obama and Leon E. Panetta, Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense, Vol. 1 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 2012). 2. Leon E. Panetta, “Defending the Nation from Cyber Attack” (speech given to Business Executives for National Security, New York, 11 October 2012). 3. Thomas Rid, “Cyber War Will Not Take Place,” Journal of Strategic Studies 35, no. 1 (2012): 5-32. 4. Thomas Rid and Peter McBurney, “Cyber-Weapons,” The RUSI Journal 157, no. 1 (2012): 6-13. 5. Idaho National Laboratory, 2005, “US-CERT Control Systems Security Center,” Cyber Incidents Involving Control Systems, INL/EXT-05-00671, . 6. Jan Kallberg and Adam Lowther, “The Return of Dr. Strangelove,” The Diplomat, 20 August 2012. MILITARY REVIEW May-June 2014 7. William F. Lynn III, “Defending a New Domain: The Pentagon’s Cyberstrategy,” Foreign Affairs 89 (2010): 97. 8. “Isaac Leaves Hundreds of Homes Underwater; Dam Shows Stress,” Los Angeles Times, 30 August 2012, . 9. American Chemistry Council, . 10. American Chemistry Council, . 11. Environmental Protection Agency. Superfund Sites, . 12. Jan Kallberg and Bhavani Thuraisingham. “State Actors’s Offensive Cyber Operations—The Disruptive Power of Resourceful Systematic Cyber Attacks,” IEEE IT Professional 15, no. 3 (2013): 32-35. 25