DOD cyber security strategy to focus on defending military and national-interest networks

WASHINGTON, 1 May 2015.Cyber security experts in the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) are focusing on defending DOD networks, systems and information, as well as on defending U.S. national interests against cyber attacks, as well as providing integrated cyber capabilities to support military operations and contingency plans.

Those are the Pentagon's top three cyber security priorities, announced Defense Secretary Ashton Carter during a speech last week at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

“We like to deter malicious action before it happens and we like to be able to defend against incoming attacks as well as pinpoint where an attack came from,” Carter said, adding that U.S. cyber forces, if necessary, will resort to offensive cyber attacks of their own, which DOD refers to as "cyber operations."

The goals of the latest DOD cyber security policy are keeping the Internet open; assuring freedoms of expression, association and privacy; building and training U.S. military cyber mission forces; and preparing to build and defend DOD information networks, secure data, and mitigate risks to military missions, Carter says.

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DOD also will strengthen network defense command and control to synchronize across thousands of DOD networks, and conduct exercises in resilience so that if a cyber attack degrades capabilities, military cyber warriors still can mobilize, deploy, and operate forces in all other domains, Carter says.

The Pentagon's latest cyber strategy calls for working with private business, because U.S. businesses own, operate, and see about 90 percent of national networks, Carter says. “We need the private sector to take its own steps to protect its data and networks."

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To build the cyber force, DOD leaders are increasing the Pentagon's investments in cyber research and development, Carter says.

More information on the DOD's latest cyber strategy is online at www.defense.gov/home/features/2015/0415_cyber-strategy/Final_2015_DoD_CYBER_STRATEGY_for_web.pdf.