[LINK] US Defense Cyberspace Strategy

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Mon Jul 18 09:21:48 AEST 2011


The US Department of Defense "Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace" was 
released 14 July 2011. This 19 page (3.3 Mb PDF) document is a response 
to recent attacks on US industrial and military on-line infrastructure. 
The strategy emphases defense, but treats cyberspace as an operational 
domain, like land, sea or air: 
http://www.defense.gov/news/d20110714cyber.pdf

Five Strategic Initiatives for US DoD Operating in Cyberspace:

1. Treat cyberspace as an operational domain to organize, train, and 
equip so that DoD can take full advantage of cyberspace’s potential
2. Employ new defense operating concepts to protect DoD networks and systems
3. Partner with other U.S. government departments and agencies and the 
private sector to enable a whole-of-government cybersecurity strategy
4. Build robust relationships with U.S. allies and international 
partners to strengthen collective cybersecurity
5. Leverage the nation’s ingenuity through an exceptional cyber 
workforce and rapid technological innovation

Jeffrey L. Caton, Professor of Cyberspace Operations at the U.S. Army 
War College, was critical of the strategy:

"In the end, it is not clear who is the intended audience and what is 
the intended message for this strategy. For readers who are already 
familiar with the ongoing efforts in DoD related to cyberspace, it 
offers nothing new. For novice readers, it is insufficient in detail and 
confusing in syntax to be of value. For detractors, its use of imprecise 
language may offer opportunities to manipulate the intent and further 
propagate the false notion that the U.S. is militarizing 
cyberspace—ironically, a concern that Secretary Lynn hoped that the 
strategy would alleviate."

From: "DoD Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace: Nothing New Here", 
Jeffrey L. Caton, DIME Blog, 15 July 2011: 
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/dime/blog/article.cfm?blog=dime&article=186

This criticism seems overly harsh. While the strategy says nothing new 
to specialists in cyber-strategy, it does bring together the scattered 
elements of US military strategy into a more coherent whole and makes it 
readable for the many in the military and in industry who need to 
implement it. But as Caton notes, the strategy is incomplete, it for 
example does not touch on the doctrine of response, where USA may use 
conventional military weapons to respond to a cyber-attack.

More in my blog: 
http://blog.tomw.net.au/2011/07/us-defense-cyberspace-strategy.html


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra



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