ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Army cyber forces must quickly and continually adapt to keep up with ever evolving threats, a panel of experts said Oct. 12 at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition.

The Army constantly monitors and analyzes threats from China, which is America’s “pacing challenge,” and other adversaries including Russia, North Korea, Iran and terrorist organizations, said Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, deputy Army chief of staff for intelligence, G-2. “This really is a global problem,” she said.

With the threat of a cyberattack on the U.S. a virtual certainty, the Army is working to grow its cyber warrior force to help close the vulnerability gap, the service’s top civilian leader said.

In testimony before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Army has captured important lessons from the conflict in Ukraine, including that “the information domain is incredibly important, and the force that can dominate in the information space I think will have the advantage in future conflict.” 

For more than a decade, Leon Panetta has warned of a possible “Cyber Pearl Harbor” that would devastate the U.S., hitting businesses, infrastructure and even the military. He brought that message to the Association of the U.S. Army on April 13 as a lunchtime speaker during a Hot Topic event focused on Army installations.

The role of Army women in the realm of technology and cybersecurity will be the focus of an upcoming webinar hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army.

The event, “Army Women in Tech,” is part of The AUSA Noon Report series. It will begin at noon Eastern on July 22. The webinar is free, but registration is required here.

Cyber capabilities and weapons are among the most serious threats facing the U.S., the director of national intelligence warned Congress. 

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, intelligence director Avril Haines and Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, Defense Intelligence Agency director, warned the U.S. needs to be better prepared. 

The Army must build a unified network capable of supporting troops anywhere around the world as the force prepares for the future battlefield, said the new deputy Army chief of staff, G-6.

“This unified network is going to be operationally imperative to support multidomain operations,” said Lt. Gen. John Morrison. 

The goal is to “make it easy for formations that are in the [continental U.S.] to rapidly deploy to any area of operations and immediately plug in and start conducting operations,” he said. 

The virtual meeting, once reserved for general officers and senior defense officials, has become a “tremendously powerful” platform that has helped the Army continue its mission during the COVID-19 emergency by connecting soldiers for meetings and even training, a senior Army officer said.

The Army is working to streamline the way it manages data to defend its network from relentless cyberattacks and give commanders fast, secure and reliable access to the information they need on the battlefield.

Network systems “were built and evolved under an ad hoc process, versus a very deliberate design process, 20 years ago,” said Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, commander of Army Cyber Command. “Maybe that worked OK, but now we’re part of a Department of Defense network of 7 million end points without sufficient visibility and sufficient command and control of our networks.”

Security and legitimacy of the November general elections are the highest priority for the U.S. Cyber Command, according to the nation’s top cyber officer, who said that the key to success is knowing “our adversaries better than they know themselves.”