November-December 2019 Advanced Public Forum Brief 2 Resolved: The benefits of the United States federal government’s use of offensive cyber operations outweigh the harms. This topic brief was written by Jesse Meyer. Jesse is a diamond coach, recipient of the Donald Crabtree Service Award, the state of Iowa’s 2015 Coach of the Year, and board member of the Iowa Forensics League. He is currently an assistant coach at Iowa City West High School. He can be reached at [email protected]. National Speech & Debate Association • Public Forum Debate: NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019 ADVANCED BRIEF November-December 2019 Advanced Public Forum Brief 3 November-December 2019 Advanced Public Forum Brief Table of Contents Resolved: The benefits of the United States federal government’s use of offensive cyber operations outweigh the harms. ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Framework and Definitions ....................................................................................................................... 9 Other Countries ........................................................................................................................................... 14 China ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 17 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................... 18 Iran ........................................................................................................................................................... 19 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 21 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................... 27 Russia ....................................................................................................................................................... 28 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 30 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................... 32 North Korea ............................................................................................................................................. 33 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 35 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................... 39 Humanitarian/Social .................................................................................................................................... 40 Civilians .................................................................................................................................................... 41 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 43 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................... 46 Artificial Intelligence ................................................................................................................................ 47 Sample Research .................................................................................................................................. 49 Further Research ................................................................................................................................. 52 ISIS/Cyber Terrorism ................................................................................................................................ 53 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 55 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................... 57 Legality ..................................................................................................................................................... 58 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 61 Future Reading ..................................................................................................................................... 64 National Speech & Debate Association • Public Forum Debate: NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019 ADVANCED BRIEF November-December 2019 Advanced Public Forum Brief 4 Alliances ....................................................................................................................................................... 65 NATO ........................................................................................................................................................ 66 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 68 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................... 71 Allies ......................................................................................................................................................... 72 Sample Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 74 Further Reading ................................................................................................................................... 76 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 77 Pro Arguments At-A-Glance..................................................................................................................... 78 Con Arguments At-A-Glance .................................................................................................................... 79 National Speech & Debate Association • Public Forum Debate: NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019 ADVANCED BRIEF November-December 2019 Advanced Public Forum Brief 5 Introduction The November/December public forum debate topic is US Cyber Operations. The internet, or at least the concept of the internet, is almost as old as modern computers. Going back as far as the 1960’s, computer programmers were looking for ways to link their computers with computers at research institutions in distant labs to share data and information. At the same time, the military realized that in the event of a nuclear war, it would be strategic for an enemy nation to target and destroy one central location and wipe out the entire records databases for both civilian and government operations. Furthermore, in the event of a war, losing one central military command and control location could cripple the response to an attack. The concept was then born to create a central system of computers that could link together and share critical data and create backups of information to hedge against the pitfalls of war and to allow academic institution to share research. In the late 1960’s the first coded internet transmission was from computer to computer. Despite a network failure that caused the full message to fail and only two letters (which were “LO” for those planning for a final Jeopardy question) the test was deemed a success. By the time we get into the 1970’s, computer networks are more stable and better designed. Computers are more powerful and their size has brought their overall size down to what we could call manageable. Instead of being the size of whole rooms with the processing power of several bits per second, computers and their microprocessors could fit into desk sized boxes (not desktops, but actual boxes the size of desks) and the processors could operate in the range of several kilobytes per second. This is not impressive by modern standards as most remotes for electronic devices have about the same processing power, at the time, it was legendary. Due to the nature of computers being limited to data processing, a lack of commercial software, and the sheer cost, computers were limited those in government, business, and the ultra-wealthy. The internet was also nonexistent for commercial use as most commercial telephone companies didn’t yet have the capacity to deal with data transmission over their phonelines. So, network communication was limited to government and business entities to share data. The first true cyber operations were born from this. The concept wasn’t to break into an enemy system to get sensitive