The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
Ciaran Martin is currently the CEO for the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre. Previously, he was Director General for Government and Industry Cyber Security. He is a member of the GCHQ Board and the SIRO. Prior to joining GCHQ in February 2014, Ciaran was Constitution Director at the Cabinet Office. In this role, he was the lead official negotiator for the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Scotland in the run-up to the Edinburgh Agreement in 2012 on a referendum on independence for Scotland. Previous Cabinet Office roles included Director of Security and Intelligence, from 2008 to 2011, and Head of the Cabinet Secretary’s Office from 2005 to 2008. Before that Ciaran spent 6 years at HM Treasury and 3 at the National Audit Office, after graduating from Hertford College, Oxford in 1996.