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The Pentagon - Source: Reuters
The Pentagon will create a Cyber Command to oversee the US military's efforts to protect its computer networks and operate in cyberspace, under an order signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The new headquarters, likely to be based at Fort Meade,
Maryland, outside Washington, DC, will be responsible for defending
US military systems but not other US government or private
networks, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Asked if the command would be capable of offensive operations as
well as protecting the Department of Defense, Whitman declined to
answer directly.
"This command is going to focus on the protection and operation of
DoD's networks," he said.
"This command is going to do what is necessary to be able to do
that."
US officials have voiced growing concern in recent years about
being vulnerable to attacks on the country's civilian or military
networks as technology takes on an ever-increasing role, including
in military operations.
President Barack Obama said last month he would name a White
House-level czar to co-ordinate government efforts to fight
cybercrime.
The United States has said many attempts to penetrate its networks
appear to come from China but it has stopped short of accusing
Chinese authorities of being responsible.
Whitman said the new command will consolidate existing Pentagon
efforts to protect its networks and operate in cyberspace.
Those efforts currently come under the auspices of US Strategic
Command in Nebraska, which will also oversee the new
headquarters.
The US Department of Defense runs some 15,000 electronic networks
and runs some seven million computers and other information
technology devices, Whitman said.
"Our defence networks are constantly probed. There are millions of
scans every day," he said.
"The power to disrupt and destroy, once the sole province of
nations, now also rests with small groups and individuals, from
terrorist groups to organized crime to industrial spies to hacker
activists, to teenage hackers," he said.
"We also know that foreign governments are trying to develop
offensive cyber capabilities," he added, saying more than 100
foreign intelligence services were trying to hack into US
networks.
The new command should begin initial operations by this October and
be fully up and running a year later.
The head of the Cyber Command would also be the director of the US
National Security Agency, which conducts electronic surveillance
and communications interception and is also based at Fort
Meade.
