“If it’s a hurricane, [at the Defense Department], they’ve got the mission assignments. They know, ‘OK, we’ve got to send people to fill sandbags,'” DHS’s Jeanette Manfra explained. For cyber responses, she said, “that part is not mature enough.”

The elevation of the cybersecurity mission to “it’s own Directorate raises its stature in NSA to a prominence that is absolutely needed,” says one former NSA official.

The military needs a globe-spanning network to counter threats that no single theater command can cope with. That takes more than just technology.

With members from Congress, the executive branch, and the private sector, the commission plans to issue a final report by year’s end.

To defend 21st century networks, should the US use the model of 18th century privateers?

NGA HQ: The low grading noise you could barely hear yesterday was the sound of the tectonic plates of American intelligence shifting as the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Agency got new directors. The nugget of news is that Vice Adm. Bob Sharp replaces Robert Cardillo as NGA director and President Trump… Keep reading →

This year promises to be a year of big changes in how the Defense Department does Cyber — and leaders are warning staffers that it’s not going to be business as usual.

Until cyber operators can both train realistically and see the their digital battlespace as clearly as traditional commanders see physical battlespace, they’ll be hard-pressed to defend everyone else’s systems.

The goal is to give the 6,200-strong Cyber Mission Force a common, compatible set of tools so they can act in cyberspace as a coordinated military unit.

“We haven’t deployed anyone, just to be clear,” Edwin Wilson said. “We’ll have a traditional prepare-to-deploy order, (and) the members and teams are on recall ready to go within hours.”