The massive military spending might not be the largest in US military history as Trump suggested as US Congress had approved larger funds during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2007-2012 period.

Then, why is there a need for these vast military expenditures currently, since the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq? The answer might lie in using this massive military budget to compete against rising military cooperation of Russia and China, as well as deterring their famed cyber-attacks.

Not all the money goes to guns and bombs

It was known that a faction of the military budget capped around at USD 100 million will go to test infrastructure and personnel, including for cybersecurity.

Despite smaller funding as compared to the purchase of 77 F-35 fighter aircrafts, the US military may expand spending on this area after the alleged Russian hacking on 2016 presidential elections as well as the reportedly intellectual thefts conducted by the Chinese hackers on US industry.

As US trade tension with China escalates, there might be more measures introduce to shore up cybersecurity for sensitives industry like arms and defense contractors.

Removal of red tapes on Cyberwar declaration

Along with the signing for the big military, US President Trump had also removed some red tapes in cyberwar declaration.

In the past, the cyberwar was bound by the Obama-administration framework named Presidential Policy Directive 20 (PPD 20), which dictated how and when US can launch cyber-attacks against its enemy in following a multi-agency process of checks and balances.

Apparently, the PPD 20 was replaced by a Trump administration with a more streamline approach, while the details of the new directory remained classified. This could imply now the President of the United States may play a bigger role in the launch of cyber-attacks as compared to previous administration.

United States, the mother of all Weapons of Mass ‘Cyber’ Destruction

US had pioneered a cyber-security agency in 2009 under the name of United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). The entity acts as a unified body plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities for military cyberspace operations.

It was heard that since its inception in 2009, the agency has stockpiled numerous ‘cyber weapons’ in its arsenal. Rumour had it that Wannacry, the deadly ransomware attack in May 2017, and NotPetya cyberattack on June 2017 were just exploits developed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), which had been stolen and used by malicious hackers to infect computer systems.

Verdict

In the world of Internet, the US always seem to have the cutting edge. After all, the US military played a big role in its development of the Internet in linking various military outposts in an unfortunate event of a nuclear fallout.

Thus, they may hold all the ‘backdoors’ and know which loop holes to exploit for cyber-warfare. As in all war, both ammunition and arsenals need money, and the best prepared army tend to fare better in warfare just as the saying goes, “Fortune favours the prepared mind.”

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