Washington Free Beacon senior editor Bill Gertz appeared on the podcast "Cybersecurity on Call" on Tuesday to discuss his book iWar and challenges in U.S. foreign policy.
Gertz and host T.J. Laher covered the overall picture about U.S. cybersecurity issues as well as measures by countries such as Russia and China. In the full episode, they discussed Russian hacking and its roots in the Soviet KGB and the future of cyber warfare, among other issues Gertz has written about.
Gertz called iWar "the culmination of reporting that I’ve done on lots of national security subjects, this time especially approaching the issue of cyber warfare as well as information warfare."
Gertz said cyber issues aren’t just about hacking and the technical side of security, but also deal with online information and disinformation campaigns.
"I look at it from two angles: One is the cyber-technical, and the other is the content-influence side of things," Gertz said.
"The central thesis of iWar is that we are already engaged in an information war that includes both of those elements, but the fact is most people in the United States don’t fully understand that, they don’t grasp that," Gertz added.
He pointed out that Russia’s recent cyber activity related to the 2016 election has made many more Americans aware of cyber security issues. He said the media has not done a great job of covering information warfare in general, however.
"There are several reasons why we are not fully up to speed on this topic of information warfare. One is, I think, that my business, the news business has really fallen down on the job in not being aware of these foreign threats," Gertz said.
"I’ve tried to make the point that these threats need to be addressed, and the United States is very ill-prepared to deal with them, and again part of the reason is that the government doesn't have a counter disinformation or information warfare capability," he added. "They really gave that up at the end of the Cold War."
He argued that people should understand that information can help governments achieve what they want without the use of military force, making it necessary for the U.S. to take action.
Laher asked him what the government should be looking to do in this information war, and he recommended taking more steps to correct false information.
"The best solution is the tool of sunshine and accurate and truthful information," Gertz said.