There aren't many revelations in the Pentagon's annual report to Congress on developments in China's military capabilities. The 94-page document released Wednesday notes that the People's Liberation Army doctrine identifies information warfare as key to countering a stronger foe, i.e. the United States. No surprises there.
Defense analyst Andrew Krepinevich warns in the latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine about the erosion of the United States' technological and military edge. In an aptly titled piece "Get Ready for the Democratization of Destruction," he writes: "The greatest danger of a catastrophic attack on the U.S. homeland will likely come not from nuclear-armed missiles, but from cyberattacks conducted at the speed of light. The United States, which has an advanced civilian cyberinfrastructure but prohibits its military from defending it, will prove a highly attractive target, particularly given that the processes for attributing attacks to their perpetrators are neither swift nor foolproof. Foreign powers may already have prepositioned 'logic bombs' -- computer code inserted surreptitiously to trigger a future malicious effect -- in the U.S. power grid, potentially enabling them to trigger a prolonged and massive future blackout."