CybersecurityPentagon to help protect U.S. cyber assets, infrastructure

The U.S. Defense Department is now sharing cybersecurity information, capabilities, and expertise with DHS, a Pentagon official said on Monday, 23 May.

Robert J. Butler, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the Obama administration’s legislative proposal to protect the nation’s computer networks.

American Forces Press Service reports that the plan calls for DHS to lead the effort to protect Americans, the U.S. critical infrastructure, and the federal government’s computer networks. The Defense Department would retain protections over its “dot-mil” domain. It would work in close collaboration DHS and the departments of Justice and Commerce better to safeguard cyberspace.

“Just as our reliance on critical infrastructure has grown, so have the threats,” Butler told the committee, adding that the military is “critically dependent” on the civilian power generation grid, telecommunications, transportation and other sectors run on computer networks.

Cyber attacks have become so pervasive as to create “a real possibility of a large-scale attack on any of our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Butler said. “The status quo (in cybersecurity) is no longer acceptable — not when there is so much at stake,” he said. “We can, and we will, do better.”

Some 2 billion people worldwide use the Internet, and an estimated $1 trillion is lost annually to cyber crimes, committee members said. Congress and U.S. executive departments, they added, are the target of about 1.8 billion cyber attacks per month.

Butler said that protecting computer networks requires a “whole of government” approach, and the Defense and Homeland Security departments already are doing that. He also said that the collaboration between Defense and DHS has grown into joint coordination at U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade, Maryland, and the sharing of information, capabilities, and employees.

Philip Reitinger, the undersecretary of homeland defense for national protection and programs, said DHS, Defense, and NSA officials meet regularly and have weekly teleconferences to coordinate cybersecurity.

“We each bring unique things to the table,” he said. “DOD has unparalleled technical expertise and cyber expertise. In DHS, we’ve built up our own expertise, working broadly across agencies.”

Homeland Security will stay “operationally synched” with the Defense Department, and both departments and NSA will deploy cyber experts to work at each others’ sites, Reitinger said.

To ensure a steady supply of cyber experts in the future, Butler said, the Defense Department supports various high school and college competitions such as the CyberPatriot, which the Air Force Association began as an annual competition in 2009, as well as coaching and mentoring programs in cybersecurity.

“This is not only about today, it’s also about tomorrow,” he said. “Secretary Gates has made this a big priority.”