Communications of the ACM
.s. Military Wants to Exert Influence Over Private Cyber Infrastructure
"Information networks connect a variety of institutions, so the effort to defend the United States will only succeed if it is coordinated across the government, with allies, and with partners in the commercial sector," according to U.S. Department of Defe
Credit: Molly A. Burgess, U.S. Navy / Department of Defense
The U.S. military wants more authority to protect the nation's cyberinfrastructure, says Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn. He says the military depends on power grids, transportation networks, and financial network systems to manage suppliers and that these networks could become military targets.
"The best-laid plans for defending military networks will matter little if civilian infrastructure — which could be directly targeted in a military conflict or held hostage and used as a bargaining chip against the U.S. government — is not secure," Lynn says. "The Pentagon is therefore working with the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector to look for innovative ways to use the military's cyberdefense capabilities to protect the defense industry." The National Security Agency is developing some of these safeguards, which include combining U.S. intelligence capabilities with network security so that networks can respond to threats identified by other means than network intrusion detection tools.
The Pentagon also is relying on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to devise the means to make Pentagon network infrastructure less prone to cyberattacks.
From Network World
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