Visit The Boston Globe Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Comment on this Scroll to top of page Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff July 30, 2018 A few weeks ago, the director of national intelligence warned that US computer systems are so vulnerable that the nation may be facing a “cyber 9/11.” Then the US Department of Homeland Security revealed that Russian hackers could get inside the nation’s utilities and turn off the lights in much of the United States. What next? How about some payback, targeting the attackers who target us? Some cyber security experts and lawmakers argue that tougher passwords and thicker firewalls alone won’t protect America’s digital assets, because any defense can be breached. Instead, they want the US government, and even private companies and individuals, to go on the offensiveby using the hackers’ own methods against them. Advertisement “You try to go about hacking the hackers,” said Michael Sulmeyer, a former Pentagon director of cyber policy who now runs the cyber security project at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. Get Talking Points in your inbox: An afternoon recap of the day’s most important business news, delivered weekdays. Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Sulmeyer believes that US cyber warriors should launch counter-attacks against foreign spies and saboteurs. Others, like Stewart Baker, former general counsel of the US National Security Agency, would go even further. They say it should be legal for businesses and individuals to “hack back” against spies or criminal gangs that… [Read full story]
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