Cyberspace Defence is New Military Priority
Defending cyberspace is now as important as defending the land, the sea and the skies - according to the Pentagon's new Quadrennial Defense Review, which was released at the start of February 2010. On that basis, the US Defense Department will continually look into new methods of functioning within cyberspace as a means of preserving national security, it said.
"Cyberspace is now as relevant a domain for DoD activities as the naturally occurring domains of land, sea, air and space", the review asserted.
US Military: Cyberspace Security
The US military's new, increased focus on cyberspace was presented just days after Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, made a major speech on cyber security. "Countries or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation", she stressed on January 21st.
"In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation's networks can be an attack on all."
The Quadrennial Defense Review highlighted how the Pentagon was assembling a panel of security professionals to oversee the millions of computers it has in operation at thousands of US military bases at locations around the globe. Statistics of this kind, it added, made the US Defense Department astronomically susceptible to attack.
US Cyber Command
Following the orders of Robert Gates - US Defense Secretary - US Cyber Command was established in 2009 and will soon become fully operational. Its aim is to link up efforts to defend and protect US military networks. According to the Review, it will, additionally, "conduct full spectrum cyberspace military operations" as required.
"The US DoD's (Defense Department's) powers of reaction need to be extremely well-honed, the paper added, "... if we are to effectively limit the damage that the most sophisticated types of attacks can inflict."
"The wars we fight are seldom the ones we plan for", Mr Gates said, today, in comments made to members of the media. "The department's leadership now recognizes that we must prepare for a much broader range of security challenges on the horizon."
