Cyberattacks . The numbers are on the screen. Also send us a tweet or go to facebook. You can also email. We will get your thoughts in just a minute about whether or not the u. S. Should engage in a offensive cyberattacks. The five by five writer from rollcall joins us. Tim starks, what do we mean when we say going on the offense when it comes to Cyber Security and cyberattacks . Guest its a very good question. The line between offense and defense insider security is very narrow. Obviously, defending her networks makes it harder for people to intrude on them, but there are people who say part of the defense is offense. You know, you need to make it if someone attacks her networks, you can attack them back. It is a deterrent, if you will. There is no question the u. S. Has conducted cyber offense, you know, they would say in the name of cyber defense. You look at the attack on north korea probably as an example of that. After the sony breakin. But its difficult to define what cyber offense is. Host and under what scenario with the u. S. Engage in this . Guest the Defense Department has asserted its right to, basically go on cyber offense when trying to defend the nation , our allies, and interests. That is an official Defense Department report from late 2011, for instance. That would be one area where they would go on offense name of defense. Host what countries have demonstrated they are a threat in this arena . Guest you have to start with United States. But as far as a threat to us, china has demonstrated some advanced capabilities on cyber. They have not conducted anything that might resemble warfare, but they have stolen military secrets from the United States. That is moving more toward offense then mere security and espionage. Russia has demonstrated a real cyber capability, if you look at the war in georgia. There was a demonstrated capability to go on that kind of offense. And another country that can do a good job of that if they want to its israel is israel. If you look at the effort between the United States and israel to create the worm that when after the Iranian Nuclear capabilities, that is another example. And there might be some terrorist organizations interested in developing that. But those are the big players on the national scene, the nationstates that have real severe ability to conduct attacks. And it is easier to attack the private sector than the u. S. Government. Host what are the current rules of engagement . Are there any . And as the United States follow them . And do other countries have any sort of rules of engagement . Guest if there are any rules it is hard to discern them. It can be difficult for anyone to suss out what they might be because some of these delve into the classified sector. When i talk to people, they tell me there are not any obvious rules of the road on this. It is a very murky area. And its something that they been working to develop for a long time. Its Cyber Command under different departments and a joint effort with the National Security agency. They were recent calls in congress after the recent attack on sony to develop a formal policy on cyber offense, to develop more formal capabilities. But it is a very murky area. Host and where it is all about stand . What does Congress Want to do . What is the administration doing . Is the United States prepared for cyberattacks . Guest even though there is this new or call for something to happen on formal cerebral cyber offense rules, it is still in the developmental stage. I was writing about Cyber Security back in 2009 or so, and a couple of years later i started asking about the offense site command people were saying, we are still trying to figure it out. That is still rearm, they are still trying to figure it out. Still where we are. They are still trying to figure it out. There was a 2012 Defense Authorization bill basically saying we give you our blessing to conduct cyber offense, but in a very vague way, not a specific way. As far as the u. S. Overall defending itself, it is probably more events than any nation if we are talking about the government. But it is till relatively easy by the nature it is still relatively easy by the nature of cyber attack to conduct an attack on the u. S. Government. We were leaking secrets to china on accident for a very long time because our defenses were not very good. We are probably still leaking some of those secrets in u. S. Government agencies. And certainly, the private sector is very vulnerable as well. Host if the u. S. Were to have engaged in offense when it comes to cyber, what agency would be doing that . Guest we would almost certainly be it would almost certainly be the Defense Department, some combination of the u. S. Cyber command of the National Security agency would be leading that kind of effort. Its possible that there would be other agencies involved, but those would be the main ones to look at. Host the Washington Post is reporting this morning that there will be a new agency to sniff out threats in cyberspace. The Sony Pictures hack spurred the u. S. To set up rapid source of intelligence on attacks. This announcement will be made later today and it will be an executive order put out by the president will stop what do you know about this by the president. What you know about this new agency after what role will it play . Guest it looks like it will be a separate Agency Within the cell the Intelligence Community that collects all of the threat data and puts it in one place. Its the kind of thing back when the entities who were back when the entity was starting to be formed, people were asking about why cant the office of the director of intelligence do this . I think you will probably hear some similar questions. Why do we need a separate agency to do this . We have the department of Homeland Security, the National Security agency. Why cant one of those agencies handle the . But the Obama Administration thinks many to be a separate effort. Host back to the topic of going on offense and asking our viewers whether or not they think we should be engaging in offense when it comes to cyber attack and going to turn to our viewers here is just a minute and have them was on to this and get their take on it. What is happening next on this front . Is there legislation percolating . Is the Administration Planning something . Who will make the next move . Guest that will be an interesting question. There has been at times a little bit of tension between the administration wanting to do this on its own without any kind of congressional interference and Congress Wanting to get involved in running the rules, but also not wanting to get overly prescriptive. I think with north korea, the sony attack, there was increasing interest in actually congress doing something. You saw the chairman of the Homeland Security committee saying we need to strengthen our capabilities to do this. Ive not seen any formal written legislation to do that yet but that does not mean we will not see it from chairman mccall perhaps. Or a Defense Authorization bill perhaps. I wouldnt be surprised to see Something Like that this year. At the same time, i would not be surprised to see some pushback from the administration saying let us figure this out. Weve been working on this for a while and we are still trying to develop the rules on our end. Give us a little space. Host tim starks with rollcall, thank you for your time. Guest thank you. Host what you think at kosher the u. S. Be engaging in offense of cyberattacks . Let the Decision Makers out here know what you think. Should this be something that the u. S. Does . In stark mentioned the chairman of the Homeland Security committee, michael mccaul. Here is a statement from him saying assaults from cyber jihadist will become more common unless it ministration developed a strategy for properly responding to these cyberattacks, including those like north korea attacking sony. Without some rules of the game for offensive responses, Cyber Threats and intrusions will continue and escalate. The numbers are on the screen. While the wait for the calls to come in, let me show you what defense secretary nominee Ashton Carter had to say last week at his confirmation hearing. He was asked by senator deb fischer, republican of nebraska about his views. Heres what he had to say. [video clip] we need to improve our defenses, but we also need to improve our ability to respond. Those responses can be in cyberspace or other ways, but certainly, they should include the option to respond in cyberspace. And the option to respond would you say that would include demonstrating the capability to do so . Is that part of our deterrence when it comes to protecting our country, our agencies, and private businesses when it comes to cyberattacks . I agree with you, i think deterrence requires that a potential aggressor know you have the capability to respond. They obviously cant know all the details or they may be able to counter your response, but they certainly need to know you can respond. Host defense secretary nominee Ashton Carter at his hearing on capitol hill, laying out the arm the argument for effective cyber operations. What you think about this . Jimmy in bryan, texas, republican, you are first. Go ahead. Caller this is a bad idea, because this will actually be used against the American People. If they do not keep these secrets that they keep from two categories of people, terrorists and the American People, then you wouldnt have to worry about these attacks. All they are protecting his businesses and themselves. Host what you mean, protecting businesses . Caller like sony, a foreign company. Not the American People. When have they come to fix your computer or tweak your antivirus . They are not doing it for the American People. They are doing it for themselves. Host ok. Joel in tennessee, what you think . Caller good morning. I would like to first thing im sure the United States has been on the offense since the First High School kid broke into the National Defense computers years ago. And another thing, all of the software is used on about 90 of the computers in the world, it was written in the United States. And another thing what people can do, though, to protect themselves is not use their birthdate and their phone number or Something Like that as a password. And windows, Microsoft Windows is the most vulnerable operating system on the planet. Host all right. Jim in silver spring, maryland, independent. What do you think, should the u. S. Engaged in cyberattacks . Caller yes, and i could draw a parallel. Suppose you had submarines off our coast who were sinking our ships that move cargo about. We would have no hesitation whatever in thinking those submarines. Whatsoever in thinking those submarines. The internet is a twoway street and we should use it both ways. Host ok, jim, when it was reported that the u. S. Shut down the internet in north korea, you think that was a good move . Caller a good thing. Just desserts. Host all right. Jamie in manassas, virginia, republican. Go ahead. Caller we are to be very straightforward and we are talking about taking preventive measures with Something Like this. The u. S. Is probably the largest jupiter contributor to this in the world. Host all right, jamie. We will take more of your comments. Keep dialing it. Should the u. S. Engage in offense of cyberattacks . Take a look at what lawmakers on capitol hill are saying on this issue. Senator angus king, independent, says and the aunt them breach, this is an insurance company, he says it is yet another example of why Congress Must act on Cyber Security. And steve daines, from montana saying it is an acceptable that we dont have concrete notification standards for victims of Cyber Security attacks. Also, from the Homeland Security committee chairman, michael mccaul, we agree with bloomberg. Following and then hack Congress Must get serious about cyber info sharing. And from jackie spear from california, how many more hacks like anthem before we admit the private sector cannot solve this problem by itself . And dan coats says neither industry nor government alone can broadly improve our nations Cyber Security. This question comes as the wall street journal reported yesterday that the debate is deepening over response to cyberattacks. And you heard what the defense secretary nominee had to say. If you want to hear more from him, go to www. Cspan. Org. And as we told you, this morning in the paper, ellen not a shema from the Washington Post had a story that the executive order is creating a new agency to sniff out Cyber Threats. She will in making the announcement at 12 45 p. M. Eastern time and we will be covering it on cspan two. We are asking all of you to weigh in on this. Washington is debating whether or not the u. S. Should engage in offensive cyberattacks and wanting to write rules of engagement. What do you all think . The numbers are on the screen. You can also send us a tweet or go to our website or you can email us. Or you can go to facebook. Here is governor bobby jindal, potential republican candidate in 2016 talking about the debate over whether not to help out ukraine by sending them weapons. [video clip] i do favor the United States providing arms and more assistance to our allies in the Ukrainian Government. I am for that. I think we need to change president clintons calculation change president putins calculation, change the way hes looking at this. He needs to fear real repercussions. Many of his actions are based on what he views as a white house that is going to lead from behind, which is not leading at all. I think there needs to be serious consequences. I think it is good that the german and french leaders are talking the the possibly of tougher sanctions. What i worry about is even if they are successful in coming up with a new agreement with russia, with the Ukrainian Government and with the separatists, the reality is that the last agreement has not been respected by the separatist or the russians. The Demilitarized Zone has been violated. Anything we can do to change the calculus of putin is a good thing. That can be more assistance to the Ukrainian Government. Falling oil prices have also had an impact on president and his calculations. Host republican governor bobby jindal, also a possible president ial candidate in 2016. If you missed it, go to www. Cspan. Org. Christian science monitor breakfast talking about lots of issues. And yesterday, president obama in a joint News Conference with chancellor merkel said he will wait for a diplomatic solution over whether or not to send you weapons to ukraine. And he is waiting for germanys leader, along with frances leader as well as the russian leader and the rebels to all me to tomorrow meet tomorrow in europe to discuss some sort of peace deal. He will wait for a diplomatic solution over whether or not to send weapons. Many democrats and republicans are urging the president to send weapons to the Ukrainian Government. Back to our topic, should the u. S. Engage in offensive cyberattacks . Anthony, go ahead. Caller good morning, greta. Good morning, everyone. My answer to that is, yes. Cyber security and cyber offensive attacks, you have to really understand the definition of them. And in that, cyber is just a technology. Its just like the horse got replaced by the automobile. And the longer we dont as a nation address the fact that we live in space and cyber is just a way people communicate across space, then we will forever find ourselves being the one on the active end of what is happening to us instead of the proactive action of dictating what others do to us. Host anthony, do you consider any cyberattacks from this country on another country and act of war . Caller yes, just like you would consider buying an act of treason spying an act of treason. You should also consider any action that affects our social, economic, political, and any other ism that affects our nation and wellbeing, its an act of war. Host ok. Lets hear from reed, republican in washington, go ahead. Caller good morning. I would like to say there are different pieces to this, but first, i dont understand why the president of the United States removed the missiles from that theater. That provided a lot of protection for ukraine and western civilization, from any aggression. That is really a mystery to me. But in terms of cyberattacks, i do think it