Cybersecurity, cyber warfare, and cyber defense are front and center in the U.S. Military's 2018 strategic report.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis says he wants to "make urgent change at significant scale," and cyber will play a significant part in that, according to the declassified version of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which we just finished reading.
Here are two examples:
1. Space and cyberspace as warfighting domains.
The Department will prioritize investments in resilience, reconstitution, and operations to assure our space capabilities. We will also invest in cyber defense, resilience, and the continued integration of cyber capabilities into the full spectrum of military operations.
2. Command, control, communications, computers and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance
Investments will prioritize developing resilient, survivable, federated networks and information ecosystems from the tactical level up to strategic planning. Investments will also prioritize capabilities to gain and exploit information, deny competitors those same advantages, and enable us to provide attribution while defending against and holding accountable state or non-state actors during cyberattacks.
The secretary also says the Department of Defense will deliver "performance at the speed of relevance," because the world has changed:
"Success no longer goes to the country that develops a new technology first, but rather to the one that better integrates it and adapts its way of fighting."
Who are the top 3 cyber threats to the U.S. and why? SecureWorld interviewed Major General Brett Williams, the former Director of Operations at U.S. Cyber Command:
The report notes something else about U.S. cybersecurity: it is at greater risk because so many non-government forces around the world have capabilities and powers to use cyber against us.
At the same time, the Secretary of Defense says the U.S. also has many non-government allies on its side, working to protect the homeland and its networks.
Another sign that the cyber battlefield is more real and relevant than ever before.
