The wait for this year’s AFCEA Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium, held at the Baltimore Convention Center, was well worth it for those interested in hearing how the Department of Defense (DoD) plans to address cyber threats to U.S. interests.
At the conference, Lt. Gen. James “Kevin” McLaughlin, U.S.A.F, deputy commander, U.S. Cyber Command, discussed imperative cyber strategies unfolding within the DoD’s primary cyber missions. To McLaughlin, the most important task for U.S. Cyber Command is combatting cyber threats on the horizon as well as creating a solidified joint-force enterprise with partner services including the Navy, Marines and Army.
“We have serious advanced threats in the cyber space domain to the United States. Not just to the military but to our nations, our allies. The threats are manifested in all kinds of ways,” McLaughlin said. “From the perspective of the Department of Defense, we are responding in a significant way to the threat. This threat has caused us to take some pretty expensive steps.”
The DoD’s cyber strategy consists of three primary missions, which McLaughlin highlighted in relation to how U.S. Cyber Command plans to uphold the mission:
- Defend DoD networks, systems and information
- Defend the U.S. homeland and U.S. national interests against cyber-attacks of significant consequence
- Provide cyber support to military operational and contingency plans
In order to meet these goals, McLaughlin said the department is creating 133 teams within the cyber mission force by 2018. The teams will concentrate in areas such as national missions, cyber protection, combat missions and overall analytic and planning support.
“By the end of fiscal year 2016, every one of those 133 teams will be in place. And by the end of fiscal year 2018, they should all be at full operating capability,” McLaughlin said.
In support of a joint-force effort, as well as tangible training, McLaughlin said “Cyber Guard,” a three-week long exercise conducted annually is helping create “realistic scenarios” for cyber security defense. McLaughlin discussed the Joint Information Environment (JIE), which aims to build a single network for national defense and acts as a critical “enabler,” he said, in domain operation and situational awareness. In turn, this training retains and maintains the desired workforce within this field, he said.
“What we are adding is the type of training and exercise that you would see in any other domain, whether you’re driving ships or flying airplanes – if you are part of an Army battalion, you have a very clear structured way of making sure individuals are training in realistic scenarios,” he said. “You know when they are ready to do their job.”
The future of cyber security is unfolding everyday and for personnel within the field, the challenges they tackle are not theoretical nor are they ethereal – the threats are real, he said.
“It’s an exciting time. If you aren’t excited and if you can’t come to work motivated and ready see new things and watch people do great work, then you probably don’t have a pulse,” he said.
“You may want to check yourself.”
COMMENTS