Commander Discusses Maturing Approach to Cyber Ops

To be effective in the cyber domain, the U.S. Air Operations Center needs to adopt the approach of a professional sports team—coordinating its offensive and defensive units, Col. Brad Pyburn, USAF, told the chapter in August. During a luncheon speech, Col. Pyburn, who is commander of the 624th Operations Center, outlined evolutions that have taken place in the Air Force's approach to dominance in cyberspace. In particular, he explained how the 624th Operations Center is helping the 24th Air Force fulfill its mission in that domain. Thought processes and approaches have matured from the mindset of “we have an outage” in the early days of the Air Operations Center to “this is what we need to execute on” to fulfill the mission. Success requires a thread of intelligence to help coordinate the offensive and defensive capabilities in cyber, he said. Strategy and planning also have a role to play in the maturing organization, he noted. Finally, Col. Pyburn spoke to the operationalism and normalization of cyber and illustrated key examples of efforts in force management and though leadership within the Air Force cyber community.

Event Photographs: