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.”
John Hultquist leads the analysis team that creates FireEye intelligence products, which are read by a global audience of government and business clients. He has over ten years of experience in covering cyber espionage and hacktivism, working in senior intelligence analysis positions at the State Department and DIA prior to FireEye and iSIGHT Partners. He is a veteran of the US Army.