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Subject: [ISN] Defense domain, civilian awareness
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews ! org>
Date: 2007-01-26 6:30:52
Message-ID: Pine.LNX.4.61.0701260030380.27737 () conundrum ! infosecnews ! org
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By Patience Wait
GCN Staff
01/22/07 issue
The world of combat has expanded to include cyberspace as a battlefield.
Two men are now responsible for protecting the United States in
cyberspaceAir Force Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, who heads the Pentagons
strategic efforts in waging cyberwar, and Gregory Garcia, who handles
the defense of the nations cyberassets.
Garcia is the first assistant secretary for cybersecurity and
telecommunications at the Homeland Security Department. It is he who
worries about how to prepare American societygovernment, commercial
interests and individual citizensto protect themselves from assaults on
their electronic assets, whether home computers or nationwide networks.
The White House appointed Garcia, a former vice president for
information security programs at the Information Technology Association
of America trade association in Arlington, Va., in September. His former
colleagues were pleased with the pick, but did not hesitate to suggest
his priorities.
I think the first thing is to do the job of making the department more
aware of cyber issues and of being a champion for cybersecurity, said
Joe Tasker, ITAAs senior vice president of government affairs. Were now
at a place where 90 percent of American businesses are on the Internet
... The ubiquity and power of the networks is becoming inescapable.
On the offensive side of the equation, Air Force secretary Michael Wynne
made it clear when he approved the creation of a Cyber Command that
combat already is taking place in cyberspace.
[T]he cyberspace domain contains the same seeds for criminal, private,
transnational and government-sponsored mischief as we have contended
with in the domains of land, sea, air and now contemplate as space
continues to mature, Wynne said in November. In cyberspace, our
military, America and indeed all of world commerce face the challenge of
modern-day pirates, of many stripes and kinds, stealing money, harassing
our families and threatening our ability to fight on ground, air, land
and in space.
Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, based at Barksdale Air Force
Base, La., is the first head of the Cyber Command. The 8th Air Force
already had many cyberspace capabilities, including intelligence,
surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare, and the creation of
this major command gives Elder the responsibility for creating
cyberspace warriors, who can react to any threats 24/7, he said.
ROBERT ELDER
GCN: What are your two or three top priorities for establishing this new
command?
ELDER: Our first priority is to establish cyberspace as a warfighting
domain, characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic
spectrum.
Today, cyberspace operations are generally viewed as network operations,
information operations, or use of the Internet as an enabler for
military operations in physical domains. The Air Force now recognizes
that cyberspace ops is a potential center of gravity for the United
States and, much like air and space superiority, cyberspace superiority
is a prerequisite for effective operations in all warfighting domains.
Our second priority is to present Air Force cyberspace forces and
capabilities to U.S. Strategic Command for their global missions, and to
other combatant commanders through their Air Force component commanders
for theater operations. This includes establishment of a 24/7-air
operations center.
Our third priority is to develop a plan to organize, train and equip the
Air Force to effectively conduct cyberspace operations. We intend to
build capacity to conduct cyberspace operations across all aspects of
[doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education,
personnel and facilities]. We must develop a robust capability to manage
risk for operations in cyberspace.
GCN: Can you elaborate on the role the Air Force will play in providing
cybersecurity, and how it relates to the roles of other governmental
offices (civilian and DOD)?
ELDER: There are many government agencies involved in cybersecurity. Air
Force Network Operations is the service component to the Joint Task
Force-Global Network Operations and will continue in that role.
However, as a warfighting domain, cyberspace is much more than computer
networks, it is a domain characterized by the use of electronics and the
electromagnetic spectrum. Although we didnt call it cyberspace before,
weve been operating in this domain at least since World War II, with
radar, chaff curtains and telephone networks. ... Superiority in
cyberspace will be defined in much the same way as we define air or
space superioritymaintaining freedom of action for the United States and
its allies, while denying freedom of action to our adversaries.
Our Air Force command-and-control networks and other cyberspace
capabilities must be capable of operating in a contested environment,
and we will seek to deny the advantages cyberspace provides to our
adversaries. Air Force Cyberspace Command will focus its efforts on
military operations in and through cyberspace, but in support of
JTF-GNO, will work closely with other government agencies. ... [We] will
be postured to support homeland security, critical infrastructure
protection and civil support operations using cyberspace.
GCN: Establishing this command implies there are real threats in
cyberspace. Can you describe whats happening on this frontier?
ELDER: Our adversaries operated in cyberspace in the past, are doing so
today, and will do so even more in the future. Your readers are well
aware of the attacks they experience with their networked computers
every day. The Air Force cant afford to disconnect a
[command-and-control] system to purge itself of malware; as a result, we
are very aggressive in our efforts to protect and defend these networks.
Al-Qaida coordinated the 9/11 strike with international and cellular
communications, and they trained their pilots on simulators.
Additionally, there are now hundreds of anti-U.S. Web sites, including
ones actively used for planning and coordinating attacks on U.S.
interests, and our adversaries can communicate freely via text messaging
and e-mail. If we can establish cybersuperiority, we can inhibit the
adversarys ability to use cyberspace as an enabler.
We have very few peer competitors or entities with similar capabilities,
in air, on the ground or at sea. However, we have many potential peer
competitors in cyberspace due to its low entry costs. And the
cyberdomain is also very attractive to both state and nonstate rogue
actors because of its potential to achieve high-impact effects with low
probability of detection or retribution. We cant afford to lose the
initiative in this area.
Our dependence on cyberspace demands an even greater emphasis on our
ability to ensure freedom of maneuver in the domain. This will entail
more than just sitting guard at workstations. It will mean approaching
the problem just like we approach defending other physical domains. We
need to be prepared to operate in cyberspace while our dominance is
being contested.
GREGORY GARCIA
GCN: As the first assistant secretary for cybersecurity at Homeland
Security, a lot of folks in the business community have high
expectations for you. What are your immediate priorities?
GARCIA: The first is that this function, cybersecurity and
telecommunications, is going to lead in the national effort to prepare
... our networks, our information and communications systems, [to] make
them more robust against cyberattacks.
Second, when incidents do happen, we need to have a strong, national
coordinated response capability ... in partnership with the private
sector, a strong level of incident response that links over to state and
local first responders. Over time, the next year or so, Ill be working
toward really integrating cyber and communications functions to better
reflect the convergence thats taking place in the marketplace. Were
looking to secure both the pipesthe transportand the contentthe info.
Finally, the third strategic priority is to build awareness. This
function is a bully pulpit. I want to help develop a well-informed
public at both the enterprise level and individual consumer level. ...
Thats a matter of getting out and talking, doing a lot of talking.
GCN: Does it really make a difference whether this is done at the
assistant-secretary level or lower in the DHS organizational chart?
GARCIA: It has made a difference already, just simply by virtue of there
being somebody at this level. It sends a clear [message] of the priority
that this administration places on cybersecurity, communications
security. I have briefed the secretary a couple of times now; he is
engaged and considers this a priority.
GCN: How have you been working on these priorities?
GARCIA: One of the first things that I pushed for, and that were close
to having done now, is co-locating the U.S.- Computer Emergency
Readiness Team (CERT) and the National Coordination Center, the
communications industry/government partnership for watch and warning.
Thats going to facilitate the information sharing we need between
industry and government [and] build our incident response capability.
... That is one of the reasons I was brought on to DHS, in recognition
of my strong ties with industry.
A couple of the high-level things we really need to do [are] work with
[the Office of Management and Budget] to raise the bar for federal
agencies, to strengthen all of our security.
Secondly, [we need to] really work with the private sector to get that
coordinated incident response capability that we need to be able to move
quickly and decisively. [And] we need a mature, real-time information
sharing capability.
GCN: What are the pitfalls, the things you worry about?
GARCIA: The threats are constantly evolving against our cyber and
communications infrastructure. Were going to build upon this shared
responsibility ... by industry, by governmentall levels of governmentby
consumers [and] academia. And if we can put in place the structures and
systems that will prepare us and deter against those threats, [if we]
build incident response capability and awareness, then well be better
able to protect ourselves. The pitfall is that we dont reach the level
of partnership that we all know is necessary.
The one thing that I worry about is lack of awareness. I think that will
be one of our biggest challenges, to be able to articulate ... how
important everybodys role is, that one computer or one network of
computers can be the portal through which an attack is launched.
_____________________________
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