U.S. responds to threat of cyber-attacks with creation of the U.S. Cyber Command

Cyber-attacks have been the new fear of the Department of Defense (DoD) for the past few years, as there is a necessity to protect DoD’s online data: up to 7 million DoD’s computers are in use every day in 88 countries. It also explains why the White House updated cyber-security orders on April 21, authorized the activation of the new U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) on May 21, and is developing a cyber-security strategy.

“It is impossible to overstate the DoD’s dependence on cyberspace. DoD’s information networks provide command and control of our forces, the intelligence and logistics on which they depend, and the weapons technologies we develop and field,” said James Miller, principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy, during a recent National Security Strategy Lecture Series in Washington, DC.

Putting a cyber-security strategy in place is a challenge for the DoD as there is no international law for this type of matter, the nature of the threat is not precisely defined, the frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks are increasing and there is a thin line between hacking and warfare. “The military has to establish what an act of aggression or an act of war looks like in cyberspace and decide on the rules for responding -- both digitally and physically -- when the line between hacking and warfare is crossed,” says Miller.

The U.S. Cyber Command was activated a few days ago in order to regroup the cyber defensive efforts which until now have been spread between several different organizations, such as the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and service commands such as the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Cyber Command works as a subordinate unified command under U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM). Four-star U.S. Army general and National Security Agency (NSA) director, Keith Alexander, is leading the Cyber Command.

During a speech delivered on June 3 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Gen. Alexander said the Cyber Command’s objective is to “ensure U.S. and allies freedom of action on the cyberspace.” Thereby, “Cyber Command will centralize command of military cyberspace operations; strengthen DoD cyberspace capabilities; integrate and bolster DoD’s cyber expertise,” said Gen. Alexander.

To achieve these goals, the U.S. Cyber Command has three types of missions laid out by Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn at the activation of the command: lead day-to-day defense of the military network, support ongoing military and counterterrorism operations, and plan for future operations and support civilian agencies under the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

According to Miller, “effective defense also requires integrating intelligence and offensive capabilities.” And that’s a key part of Cyber Command -- the linking of intelligence, offense and defense under one roof.

“It’s not so simple,” Gen. Alexander said at the CSIS. The volume of data exchanged and use of the Internet users is soaring -- Internet users are estimated at 1.8 billion worldwide – and so is the number of attacks. In fact, out of approximately 247 billion e-mails sent each day during 2010, approximately 200 billion were spam. In 2007, CENTCOM, the State Department, the Department of Commerce and NASA had been hacked, leading to the loss of millions of pages of classified information.

And the private sector in the U.S. is losing an estimated $20 billion annually because of cyber-attacks.