Cyberspace Tops U.S. Military Challenges

"There is no warfare area more important than cyber." That was the assessment offered by Vice Adm. Richard W. Hunt, USN, commander of the U.S. Third Fleet. Moderating a panel focusing on multinational operations at TechNet Asia Pacific 2009, Adm. Hunt outlined the challenges facing the United States as cyberwarfare increases in importance. The resultant increased capabilities of cyberspace come with increased vulnerability, and successful operations in other areas depend on our ability to control cyber and to prevent an enemy from damaging it, he stated. The admiral asked how we can protect and give assured communications flow across the board. He related that we were there 20 years ago with the Soviet Union, but when the Berlin Wall came down, we became lax. One solution might be to have an information system to appear changing all the time so that adversaries would have a hard time getting in or shutting it down.