A month ago, a U.S.-based telecom company announced that it had been hacked by suspected Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors. It was a window into 21st-century conflict. No missiles were fired or borders crossed, but the aim was to access the data center of vital infrastructure.

The brazen act was also a portent. North America’s existing defense architecture, the spine of continental defense for decades, was designed in an era of radar screens, air interceptors and missile silos. It depended on deterrence by denial or punishment, both made credible by early warning of Soviet bombers or missiles.

The system worked for that era because threats were visible, perimeters were clear and attacks came from the sky. Now threats come through data cables, computer networks and supply chains.

The challenge is to build a new continental defense architecture that defends that space as effectively as North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as "NORAD," once defended airspace above the continent.

The 21st century is already what security experts are now calling a “gray zone” of competition and contestation........

© The Hill