Air Force works to defend cyberspace, too
Commentary by Lt. Col. Paul Berg
Air Force Doctrine Development and Education Center
6/30/2008 - Maxwell AFB, Ala. -- In 2003, the White House published "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," a document that presents cyberspace security as a subset of Homeland Security and outlines a wide range of initiatives to "protect against the debilitating disruption of the operation of information systems for critical infrastructures and, thereby, help to protect the people, economy, and national security of the United States."
One of those initiatives calls for the government to "improve coordination for responding to cyber attacks within the U.S. national security community."
The Air Force answered that call in December 2005 when it announced its new mission statement: To deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in air, space and cyberspace.
This statement marked a dramatic increase in the service's focus on cyberspace; indeed, the Air Force has begun to reorganize itself to conduct cyberspace operations.
The Air Force is in the process of building a new major command responsible for cyberspace operations. Scheduled for initial operations capabilities by Oct. 1, the Air Force Cyber Command will organize, train, and equip forces to preserve freedom of access to cyberspace, much as Air Combat Command and Air Force Space Command preserve free access to air and space, respectively.
Air Force Cyber Command specific responsibilities will depend in part on exactly how one defines its operating environment. In contrast to the land and sea environments, cyberspace is difficult to define precisely, but leaders around the world realize that success in any type of warfare depends on protecting one's own data while preventing adversaries from using theirs.
According to former Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne, "Cyberspace is a domain for projecting and protecting national power, for both strategic and tactical operations." Furthermore, "the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff defined cyberspace as characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures."
Such broad definitions cover many activities, including defending or attacking computer networks, using communication and global positioning system satellites, and conducting Internet financial transactions. Air Force Cyber Command may find itself involved in many of these activities.
However one defines cyberspace, securing it brings many of the same advantages that accompany the freedom to use other environments for peaceful purposes. Criminals, pirates and terrorists -- who have long prowled the land, sea, and air environments -- will certainly operate in space when they can. In fact, they are already menacing cyberspace.
Peaceful world commerce depends on security in all these environments. Just as the police, U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy/Coast Guard help protect land-transportation routes, freedom of the skies, and freedom of the seas, respectively, so will Air Force Cyber Command help ensure freedom of cyberspace.
Secretary Wynne observed that creation of the command reflected the existence of war in cyberspace: "This step simply recognized the ... fact that significant Air Force personnel and technology have long been engaged in fighting in cyberspace."
Military leaders know that their ability to fight on the ground, at sea, in the air, and in space depends on computer networks vulnerable to attack through cyberspace. As technology advances, the financial cost of establishing a presence in cyberspace and operating there will probably decline, increasing the risk that hostile groups may try to undermine the global information network that supports U.S. and coalition national security.
According to "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," a spectrum of malicious actors can and do conduct attacks against our critical information infrastructures. Of primary concern is the threat of organized cyber attacks capable of causing debilitating disruption to our nation's critical infrastructures, economy, or national security.
AFCYBER will prepare forces for use by national leaders, but will not try to control all military cyberspace activities because that realm remains an inherently joint environment requiring the interdependent action of many military and civilian organizations.
The command represents one more step in an ongoing process to safeguard the electromagnetic environment within which computer networks vital to military and commercial activities alike reside. Much work remains, though, because as the military organizational structure for cyberspace has begun to take shape, many doctrinal and operational concepts have not been finalized.
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