Cyberspace

During an interview with Rear Adm. Michael A Brown, USN, last week, the admiral clarified the first-of-its-kind cybersecurity partnership with the state of Michigan.

The second and final day of AFCEA's SOLUTIONS Series event focusing on cyberspace demonstrated that the military and government are still perplexed by this new domain.

Two leaders in the intelligence realm shared their main concerns about security and cyberspace to a packed auditorium at the SOLUTIONS Series.

Tracks panelists at SOLUTIONS discuss the foundational issues, current initiatives and long-term plans for cybersecurity.

Sherri Ramsay, director of the NSA's Central Security Service Threat Operations Center, says that the intersection of cyber, national and economic security has changed the way her organization interacts with industry.

"I tell people if you get three individuals with an attitude and an explosive, you've got a problem on your hands."--Lt. Gen. Ted F. Bowlds, USAF, commander, ESC

LandWarNet closed with a keynote address by Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff. Outlining his views on command and control, the general noted that the Army is in a critical time of transformation and conflict. He added that the service has undergone rapid change during the last eight years.

The general noted that a critical lesson learned from the past several years is that vital technological and operational changes are made on the ground by soldiers at the tip of the spear. More data is now available to warfigthers than ever before, but it must be made available to a variety of personnel across all echelons, he said.

If the sharing of battlefield information had not been managed properly, it would have crippled the Army's operational efforts, Gen. Chiarelli shared. However, he credits the success of systems such as FBCB2 and the Command Post of the Future (CPOF) for providing soldiers with increased situational awareness. The tactical ground reporting system (TIGR), is making its way to troops in the field. It is a virtual notebook designed to provide soldiers and commanders with data and information to make more efficient decisions.

But despite these developments, there have been challenges. The general noted that communications personnel resisted the development and deployment of command and control systems such as FBCB2, CPOF and TIGR. He added that the Army also takes a "cookie cutter" approach to computer security and warned that it is individual soldiers who suffer from bad decisions and lack of foresight about the implications of some policies.

The theme of this year's LandWarNet conference and symposium is leveraging the global network enterprise to enable full spectrum operations to the warfighter. Gen Carter F. Ham, USA, launched the event by discussing the Army's need to leverage the network and cyberspace to enable command and control. He explained that this was a historic time for Army signals as the service establishes a new unified command devoted to cyberspace.

The networked world is beginning to discover that sharing is not always beneficial. Marauders always have been the bane of cyberspace, but now a new set of threats has emerged to imperil more than just the usual targets. Ordinary citizens now are menaced by sophisticated organizations seeking to damage society or to loot it of its funds-or both. And, as always, the network-centric military is under assault by increasingly frequent and effective cyberagents operating under foreign government control.

As cybercrime and cyberwarfare continue to be the defining challenges of the 21st century, how can the new administration and Congress best prepare the country to fully embrace cybersecurity as a national priority?