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.”
The dangers of the COVID-19 virus go beyond the physical, according to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, which issued a warning about cybercriminals trying to capitalize on peoples’ vulnerabilities during the global pandemic.
“Be suspicious,” soldiers were reminded in a Cybercrime Prevention Flyer issued March 19. The flyer strongly encourages soldiers to take extra steps in verifying unknown people or organizations who ask for personal information or seek to obtain money for goods or services.
The chief of the National Guard Bureau said the Guard is prepared to respond to cyberattacks that are now “daily battlegrounds” in the homeland, citing attacks on school districts and government agencies in Texas earlier this year.
“Our adversaries and nonstate actors use cyber activity to target personnel, commercial and government infrastructure, and the effects can be devastating,” Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel said during a Nov. 5 media roundtable at the Pentagon.
In recognition of the growing importance of cyber, electronic warfare and advanced communications, the Army is changing the way it assesses, trains and manages its cyber and signal personnel, said Maj. Gen. Neil Hersey, commanding general of the Army Cyber Center of Excellence.
Despite his title, Hersey noted that he runs both the cyber and signal schools and manages the cyber, electronic warfare and signal workforces. That combination is natural because “90% of what we do on the networks is done by the Signal Corps,” he said.
As U.S. Cyber Command and its subordinate Army headquarters approach their 10th anniversary next year, the military’s cyber warfighters must remain resilient and ready, one of the military’s top generals said.
“We’re on a journey, and we’ve been on a journey for the past decade,” said Gen. Paul Nakasone, who is the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service.
As it conducts daily operations that are “short of war,” the U.S. Army Cyber Command is tackling the challenge of improving commanders’ understanding of an invisible enemy that is active in all domains.
In the race to create new cyber and electronic warfare units for multidomain operations, the Army has not fully assessed the risk involved with creating some of those units at an accelerated pace, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.
The cyber battlefield is already “very active,” with many nations and nonstate groups displaying offensive and defensive cyber capabilities, a senior Army intelligence officer said.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Army Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr., the Defense Intelligence Agency director, said he’s concerned that in a world filled with systems that are connected by the internet, the level of oncoming reconnaissance “creates a degree of vulnerability.”
In the 21st century, everything is at your fingertips thanks to modern technology.
An improved MHS GENESIS—the Defense Department’s new electronic health record—is set to deploy at four more military treatment facilities on Sept. 7, according to Defense Health Agency officials.
“The work that we’ve been doing is working to solve the problems that we’ve found in the record to date,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Lee Payne, MHS GENESIS functional champion and assistant director for combat support at DHA, said during a media roundtable on July 30.
