Democracy, Security, and the Cyber Battlefield

The theft of emails from Democratic National Committee servers prior to the 2016 presidential election may have changed the course of American democracy. But election meddling is only one facet of a broad and pervasive cyber threat to the United States, argues David Sanger, with government servers, military networks, and critical infrastructure all infiltrated by foreign powers. In doing so these nations are following in the footsteps of the United States, which became the first nation to deploy a cyber weapon with its 2006 attack on Iran’s nuclear program. Having created this “perfect weapon” why was the United States so unprepared to guard against it? What does the age of cyber warfare mean for US democracy and security?