[ISN] Former NSA & CIA Director Suggests Employing Mercenaries For Cyberwarfare

http://www.itproportal.com/2011/08/01/former-nsa-cia-director-suggests-employing-mercenaries-cyberwarfare/

By Desire Athow
ITProPortal.com
01 August, 2011

One of the architects of US foreign policy under George W. Bush, General 
Michael Hayden, suggested that the US Government should consider 
creating a "Digital Blackwater" during an open conversation with 
Bloomberg's Allan Holmes and several other cybersecurity specialists on 
stage, during an event called the Aspen Security Forum.

Blackwater refers to the US private military group founded in 1997 and 
which has been renamed as Xe Services LLC, a move possibly linked with a 
number of high controversies that arose after the company expanded its 
security-related operations into Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recruiting mercenaries, Hayden suggested “might be one of those big new 
ideas in terms of how we have to conduct ourselves in this new cyber 
domain,” referring to cyber warfare.

He continued by saying “You think back long enough in history and there 
are times when the private sector was responsible for its own defense,” 
before adding “we may come to a point where defense is more actively and 
aggressively defined even for the private sector and what is permitted 
there is something that we would never let the private sector do in 
physical space".

Hayden went on to suggest the creation of a digital Blackwater, 
something that Xe might already be considering before hinting at what 
will happen next; "private sector expands to fill the empty space" 
before ominously claiming, "these are the kinds of things that are going 
to be put into play here very, very soon.”

[...]


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