Michael Wynne, former U.S. Air Force secretary, has said the federal government should prioritize the shift from software patches to computational analog circuit design in order to defend computer networks from cyber threats.
He wrote in a Breaking Defense opinion piece published Wednesday that government officials should work to protect federal websites from potential cyber attacks through the use of “frozen complex analog circuitry mimicking and replacing currently installed internet appliances.â€
Wynne, one of the candidates for the deputy defense secretary post under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, urged critical infrastructure owners to integrate analog circuit design with supervisory control and data acquisition systems under the supervision of the Department of Homeland Security.
Server and router designers as well as internet service providers should offer support to government agencies and public corporations as part of the transition to the frozen analog circuitry, he wrote.
“It is time for analog as the solution set to deal with the vulnerability challenges associated with software,†Wynne noted.
“Vulnerability on the internet is actually a choice, not a given outcome,†he added.
