Have you read any of the op-eds by incoming National Security Advisor John Bolton?
If not, you may be surprised: he's outspoken about increasing the amount of cyber power the United States should use against our adversaries. This includes Russia.
In an opinion piece he wrote for The Hill, he was very direct:
"Putin’s global aspirations are not friendly to America, and the sooner he knows we know it, the better. It is not enough, however, to file criminal charges against Russian citizens, nor are economic sanctions anywhere near sufficient to prove our displeasure. We need to create structures of deterrence in cyberspace, as we did with nuclear weapons, to prevent future Russian attacks or attacks by others who threaten our interests.
One way to do that is to engage in a retaliatory cyber campaign against Russia. This effort should not be proportional to what we have just experienced. It should be decidedly disproportionate. The lesson we want Russia (or anyone else) to learn is that the costs to them from future cyberattacks against the United States will be so high that they will simply consign all their cyberwarfare plans to their computer memories to gather electronic dust."
Bolton's comments could signal a major shift at a time when U.S. Cyber Command is being elevated to a war fighting domain.
When I interviewed the former Director of Operations for U.S. Cyber Command at SecureWorld Detroit, Major General Brett Williams told me there is a key difference between Russia, China, and the U.S. when it comes to fighting on the cyber battlefield.
"They are not hesitant to use cyberspace to achieve their strategic goals. They aren't as concerned with precedent or lack of international law, and we are," he says.
"In my personal opinion, one of our greatest strengths and one of our greatest weaknesses is that we generally play by the rules in cyberspace and that's harder sometimes."
This could all be about to change.
It's tough to know if it is just bluster or if there will be follow-through.
But if Bolton walks the talk on cyber warfare, we may be learning more about U.S. cyber capabilities as they are used against our adversaries.