The chapter was honored to welcome Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, USAF (Ret.), as the speaker for 2nd annual Defense Associations Luncheon jointly hosted by the chapter and the Air Force Association in March. Gen. Elder served as the first commander of U.S. Air Force Network Operations and led the development of the Air Force's cyberspace mission. Gen. Elder currently is a research professor for the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University. He conducts research in the areas of cyber enterprise resiliency and the use of modeling to support national security decision-making.
Gen. Elder began his presentation on cybersecurity and culture by dispelling current myths about cyber security professionals, explaining that all cybersecurity professionals are not nerds. He further explained that the future leaders in cybersecurity would look much like the leaders of today, except they will have deep knowledge and understanding of the cybersecurity domain. Gen. Elder also explored the topic by drawing a parallel between how our culture has and will continue to change as a result of cyberspace. In a networked culture, importance is a function of how many connections someone establishes. Compared to a typical hierarchical structure with a president, chief executive officer or other leader, the networked model presents new opportunities and challenges. Gen. Elder pointed out that in a networked environment, value immediately goes down when production stops. An example would be someone who posts a popular video on YouTube. The individual would be famous in a matter of hours but also forgotten in the same amount of time.
Gen. Elder also commented on the need for further development of United States contingency plans for cyber. He said, we always assumed we would lose communications with cyber, data loss is not usually assumed this is a problem. While the U.S. cyber currently has an offensive capability, cyberdefenses for our domestic infrastructure are of concern to many experts in the community. However, with experts like Gen. Elder and others leading the charge for understanding and dominating the cyberdomain, we can take some comfort that the country is aware of the problem and deciding its path forward with knowledge of the battlefield. |
