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U.S. strategic cyber deterrence options
The U.S. government appears incapable of creating an adequate strategy to alter the
behavior of the wide variety of malicious actors seeking to inflict harm or damage through
cyberspace. This thesis provides a systematic analysis of contemporary deterrence
strategies and offers the U.S. the strategic option of active cyber defense designed for
continuous cybered conflict. It examines the methods and motivations of the wide array of
malicious actors operating in the cyber domain. The thesis explores how the theories of
strategy and deterrence underpin the creation of strategic deterrence options and what role
deterrence plays with respect to strategies, as a subset, a backup, an element of one or another
strategic choice. It looks at what the government and industry are doing to convince
malicious actors that their attacks will fail and that risk of consequences exists. The thesis
finds that contemporary deterrence strategies of retaliation, denial and entanglement lack
the conditions of capability, credibility, and communications that are necessary to change
the behavior of malicious actors in cyberspace. This research offers a midrange theory of
active cyber defense as a way to compensate for these failings through internal systemic
resilience and tailored disruption capacities that both frustrate and punish the wide range of
malicious actors regardless of origin or intentions. The thesis shows how active cyber defense
is technically capable and legally viable as an alternative strategy in the U.S. to strengthen
the deterrence of cyber attacks