CYBERSPACE 101
UNDERSTANDING THE CYBERSPACE DOMAIN
---The Air Force Mission is to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace. The joint community has recognized that the understanding of cyberspace has evolved. This understanding was a factor in the Air Force modifying its mission statement.
--Air Force Vision: Expand our leading role in Cyberspace...afford us offensive capabilities and deliberate target sets...and be at the vanguard of protecting our nation from an electronic "Pearl Harbor."
-- For the purposes of the National Military Strategy cyberspace is defined as:
"A domain characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures." Joint guidance on cyberspace operations is still in development.
--Cyberspace is a domain like land, sea, air and space and it must be defended. Although we've been operating in cyberspace for a very long time - since the invention of telegraph, radio and radar -- we now conduct the full range of military operations in this domain. Just as the sea domain is characterized by use of water to conduct operations, and the air domain characterized by operations in and through the atmosphere, the cyber domain is characterized by use of electronic systems and the electromagnetic spectrum. This includes all energy that flows through the electromagnetic spectrum--radio waves, micro-waves, x-rays, gamma rays, and directed energy. If an electronic system emits, transmits or reflects, it's operating in cyberspace and we are there to take military action.
--Cyberspace operations include far more than network warfare operations--the use of improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorist use of GPS and SATCOM, Internet financial transactions by adversaries, radar and navigational jamming, and attacking American servers are just a few examples of operations that involve cyberspace.
-- We must train, organize and equip our force to deliver the full-range of effects in cyberspace. Operating in cyberspace cannot be a pick up game. That's why the Air Force stood up an operational command for cyberspace, capable of functioning as a supported or supporting component of the Joint Force. The Air Force is posturing to support U.S. Strategic Command (Offutt AFB, Neb.) as the primary supported command, but also to present air, space, and cyber capabilities to a joint force commander through the Air Component Commander. The Air Force intends to be the service of choice for supporting USSTRATCOM's mission in cyberspace. The cornerstone of the Cyberspace Command will be the leading-edge capabilities already resident in 8th Air Force units to include command and control, electronic warfare, net warfare, and surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
--Cyberspace must be defended. Cyberspace contains and controls our nation's critical infrastructure: communications, transportation, finance, utilities, etc. We cannot afford to expose this infrastructure to potential adversaries. We must be properly equipped, fully prepared and ever vigilant to protect against an electronic "Pearl Harbor."
--Offensive cyberspace: The effects we can produce in and through cyberspace upon our adversaries range from simple deterrence all the way to destruction and defeat--the full range of operational effects delivered against an adversary.
THE CYBER THREAT
Excerpts from the Director of National Intelligence's statement for the record of Feb 2008: The US information infrastructure including telecommunications and computer networks and systems, and the data that reside on them is critical to virtually every aspect of modern life. Therefore, threats to our IT infrastructure are an important focus of the Intelligence Community. As government, private sector, and personal activities continue to move to networked operations, as our digital systems add ever more capabilities, as wireless systems become even more ubiquitous, and as the design, manufacture, and service of information technology has moved overseas, our vulnerabilities will continue to grow.
STATE AND NON STATE CYBER CAPABILITIES: Our information infrastructure--including the internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers in critical industries increasingly is being targeted for exploitation and potentially for disruption or destruction, by a growing array of state and non-state adversaries. Over the past year, cyber exploitation activity has grown more sophisticated, more targeted, and more serious. The Intelligence Community expects these trends to continue in the coming year.
We assess that . . . nation states and criminals target our government and private sector information networks to gain competitive advantage in the commercial sector. Terrorist groups . . . have expressed the desire to use cyber means to target the United States. Criminal elements continue to show growing sophistication in technical capability and targeting, and today operate a pervasive, mature on-line service economy in illicit cyber capabilities and services available to anyone willing to pay.
Each of these actors has different levels of skill and different intentions; therefore, we must develop flexible capabilities to counter each. It is no longer sufficient for the US Government to discover cyber intrusions in its networks, clean up the damage, and take legal or political steps to deter further intrusions. We must take proactive measures to detect and prevent intrusions from whatever source, as they happen, and before they can do significant damage.
At the President's direction, an interagency group reviewed the cyber threat to the U.S. and identified options regarding how best to integrate U.S. Government defensive cyber capabilities; how best to optimize, coordinate and de-conflict cyber activities; and how to better employ cyber resources to maximize performance. This tasking . . . directs a comprehensive national cyber security initiative. These actions will help to deter hostile action in cyber space by making it harder to penetrate our networks.
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