Wow. I hope that's not what he actually wrote. If it is, and I realise it's a quote taken out of context then it's quite possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever heard him say.
Nuclear hotlines work because there's a certain established protocol for nuclear weapons. Due to Mutually Assured Destruction no-one (at least no-one using hotlines) really wants to start the first strike because it will result in annihilation. Therefore there's a vested interest in having the hotlines to avoid accidentally starting World War III.
With Cyberwar (and I'm referring to Computer Network Attack, not Computer Network Exploitation or espionage) there's no clear cut definition of what it actually is. Cyberwar means different things to different people in the same room, let alone different things to different people with different military structures and doctrines.
CNA is a very exploratory field at the moment, partly because no-one really understands the structure or boundaries and partly because it isn't necessarily contained to a theatre of operations. Add to that the fact that it is extremely cheap (by comparison) to mount cyber attacks (i.e. any fool and a laptop can do it) and the rules of engagement for cyber warfare become murkier than ever.
So to conclude, no I don't think we need cyberwar hotlines, at least until there's a broad military consensus on what cyberwar is, from which people can determine what type of communications they would need for such actions.
Nuclear hotlines work because there's a certain established protocol for nuclear weapons. Due to Mutually Assured Destruction no-one (at least no-one using hotlines) really wants to start the first strike because it will result in annihilation. Therefore there's a vested interest in having the hotlines to avoid accidentally starting World War III.
With Cyberwar (and I'm referring to Computer Network Attack, not Computer Network Exploitation or espionage) there's no clear cut definition of what it actually is. Cyberwar means different things to different people in the same room, let alone different things to different people with different military structures and doctrines.
CNA is a very exploratory field at the moment, partly because no-one really understands the structure or boundaries and partly because it isn't necessarily contained to a theatre of operations. Add to that the fact that it is extremely cheap (by comparison) to mount cyber attacks (i.e. any fool and a laptop can do it) and the rules of engagement for cyber warfare become murkier than ever.
So to conclude, no I don't think we need cyberwar hotlines, at least until there's a broad military consensus on what cyberwar is, from which people can determine what type of communications they would need for such actions.