Retired CIA chief Michael Hayden downplayed the notion that the U.S. is in a raging “cyberwar” with China during a speech on Thursday at the Black Hat technology security conference in Las Vegas.

Rather than calling the situation a “war,” the U.S. should instead listen to the advice his father gave him as a nine-year-old: “Quit whining, act like a man and defend yourself,” according to the Financial Times.

He noted that the U.S. maintains a presence on foreign networks, too. “We’re actually pretty good at this, and the Chinese aren’t the only ones doing it,” he said. (The Hill — h/t @raykwong)

It’s always the retired guys telling the truth, of course. Not that any of this is news. The headline is that someone who was in a position of authority is actually willing to move beyond the scare tactics.

Of course China has people working in the online security area, as does the U.S. Everyone’s doing it, and the rest is trying not to get caught and being good at spin and damage control.

Whenever someone gets caught (a la famous pilot and sheep dipper Francis Gary Powers), one is supposed to deny as much as possible, while the other side is then free to bitch and moan and pretend that their side does not engage in the same sort of behavior.

I suppose that there are two justifications for the “Red Scare” tactics with respect to the coming cyberpocalypse. First, you can’t let the other guys know what you know. You either exaggerate the threat or play it down, but in any event, you can’t tell the truth. In using hyperbolic language, the CIA and NSA are, I suppose, adopting Lou Holtz tactics.¹

Second, if the threat isn’t dire, you don’t get funding, so you better go with the worst-case scenario when you’re up on The Hill testifying in front of Congress. Of the two, this to me is the most persuasive. Sure, D.C. is populated by patriots trying to get their jobs done, but deep down in their hearts, they are bureaucrats whose foremost task is to remain relevant and employed.

The problem with this whole system, however, is that the scare tactics are spewed out there periodically (by both U.S. and PRC authorities), and dutiful members of the press in both countries parrot the government officials’ dire pronouncements. Average folks then read those press accounts and think that the world is about to end in a torrent of denial of service requests.

Which leads me to an inevitable conclusion: don’t trust anyone unless he/she is retired.
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1. Holtz, long time head coach of the American University of Notre Dame football team, was famous for talking up the strength of his opponent in the press in the week leading up to the game.[↩]

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