<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"President Barack Obama has asked for a list of potential overseas targets that the U.S. could hit with cyberattacks, according to a top-secret directive that reveals how the government intends to step up its offensive cyber capabilities.\nThe top-secret document was obtained by The Guardian and published on Friday. The document was issued last October and portions of it were revealed in January, but this is the first time we are seeing it in its entirety.\nSEE ALSO: Microsoft and FBI Take Down Global Cyber Crime Ring\n\nThe leaked presidential policy directive calls for the secretary of defense, the director of national intelligence, and the CIA director to draw a plan \"that identifies potential systems, processes and infrastructure against which the United States should establish and maintain OCEO [Offensive Cyber Effects Operations] capabilities.\"\nThese offensive operations \"in or through cyberspace\" are defined as actions conducted on behalf of or by the U.S. government that produce \"cyber effects\" outside U.S. networks. \nThese, the document notes, can have \"potential effects ranging from subtle to severely damaging\" \u2014 and they include loss of life. The document warns that authorities should carefully consider all consequences before launching any attack. \nNational Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement that the directive is simply a response to the evolution of cybersecurity. \n\"The directive will establish principles and processes that can enable more effective planning, development and use of our capabilities,\" Hayden said. \n\"It enables us to be flexible, while also exercising restraint in dealing with the threats we face. It continues to be our policy that we shall undertake the least action necessary to mitigate threats and that we will prioritize network defense and law enforcement as the preferred courses of action.\"\nAfter last year's revelation that the U.S. and Israel were behind Stuxnet, the worm that hit Iranian nuclear centrifuges and is considered the first cyberweapon ever deployed, talks of ramping up U.S. cyberattacks have been ongoing. In March, NSA chief and head of the cyber command Gen. Keith Alexander said the nation was ready to attack in cyberspace. This report seems to confirm that.\nThe report specifies that all such operations should be in accordance with U.S. and international law \u2014 something that Stuxnet wasn't, according to NATO researchers. Also, every operation that will lead to significant consequences should be approved directly by the President, the document states. \nThe Guardian reported the story on the same day Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was a long-awaited summit, which came after months of escalating tensions between the two superpowers, during which both have accused the other of hacking.\nDespite all the talk of cyberwar and cyberweapons, experts like Howard Schmidt, the former Obama cybersecurity czar, have long warned about the perils of using malware as a weapon. \n\"You can use fire in a conflict if you're not going to burn. If you're going to burn, you better not care about what's going to burn,\" he said in a January interview with Mashable. \"And in cyberspace you think about how vulnerable we are in the United States \u2014 and generally in the developed countries \u2014 that could have a worse effect than what we're trying to solve to begin with.\"\nImage via Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/06/07/obama-cyberattacks-target-list/>