Army Studying Use of Strategic Offensive Cyber Tools at Tactical Edge
The U.S. Army is about halfway through a 120-day study into the possibility of providing strategic offensive cyber capabilities at the tactical edge, officials reported on the first day of AFCEA’s TechNet Augusta conference, taking place in Augusta, Georgia, August 15-17.
The study was directed by the Secretary of the Army and delegated to the Cyber Center of Excellence commanded by Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton. The study was precipitated by U.S. Cyber Command’s enhanced budget control, according to Col. Nadine Nally, the new Army capabilities manager for cyber at the Cyber Capability Development and Integration Center.
Col. Nally said the service is 59 days into the study. “We’re looking at opportunities here where we’re going to look at how do we take some of these existing OCO [offensive cyber operations] capabilities and provide them down to the tactical force,” Col. Nally said.
The study involves much more than just technology. “Obviously, there are first-, second- and third-order effects of that—authorities and funding and training—but we’re looking at how we’re going to be involved in that effort,” Col. Nally added, explaining that the Cyber Capability Development and Integration Directorate is a study participant but is not leading the effort.
We’re looking at opportunities here where we’re going to look at how do we take some of these existing OCO [offensive cyber operations] capabilities and provide them down to the tactical force.
The idea includes mission-tailorable offensive cyber tools. “OCO tools conceptually are built around counter-adversary effects by focusing on the adversary’s C4I systems, weapon systems and critical support infrastructure. The tools will be able to be customized remotely for a specific threat environment,” Col. Nally said.
Next steps include seeking information from tactical commanders and employing teams of analysts to collect more data.
Cyber analytics is another Army priority Col. Nally indicated. “This is our ability to get analysis on the Army’s big data platform, and that’s known as Gabriel Nimbus. It’s vital to the cyber domain. It’s vital to the cyber mission, and it gives us the ability to rapidly process terabytes of data. It increases the ability to detect the adversary in a contested environment,” the colonel offered.
The Army also intends to evolve its cyber platform to reduce bandwidth requirements on the network.
