Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter at Stanford on Thursday. (Photo: The New York Time)
(VOVworld)- A new Pentagon cyber security strategy lays out publicly for the first time that the U.S. military plans to use cyber warfare as an option in future conflicts with enemies.
The 33-page strategy document says the Defense Department "should be able to use cyber operations to disrupt an adversary's command and control networks, military-related critical infrastructure and weapons capabilities."
This is the second time the US Defense Department has announced a strategy for cyber warfare after the earlier strategy was released in 2011.
The announcement comes on the heels of President Barack Obama's decision earlier this month to authorize financial sanctions against malicious overseas hackers or companies that use cyberespionage to steal U.S. trade secrets. Those companies could include state-owned corporations in Russia, China or other countries that have long been named as cyber adversaries.