The emergence of cyberthreats in recent years has become very concerning, especially to the United States government, which is aware of the vulnerability of its critical infrastructures. As such, cyberspace has been labelled as a warfighting domain, necessitating the need for a strategy to deter against cyberthreats. This is similar to the deterrence principles utilized by the United States during the Cold War. However, the same practices cannot be copied, as nuclear warfare and cyber warfare exist on very different planes, as well as different scales. As such, a new deterrence strategy must be developed in order to protect the country from threats.
This paper explores if cyber deterrence is an attainable goal, as well as the challenges it has. Some challenges described are the sheer mass of cyber attacks that occur each day, making it incredibly difficult to distinguish serious threats from minor ones. Additionally, the ability to determine the identity of attackers, and the ability to respond quickly to different attacks is something that needs to be worked on before the United States can have an effective deterrence strategy. In general, cyber security is ever evolving, meaning that defense strategies must grow alongside attackers, whoa re constantly gaining more knowledge and experience.
