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8 August 2010
USCYBERCOM Commander Eyes the First Cyberwar Defeat
"My main focus will be on building the capacity, the capability, and the critical partnerships required to secure our military's operational networks. This command is not about efforts to militarize cyber space. Rather, it is about safeguarding the integrity of our military's critical information systems."Gen. Keith Alexander, USCYBERCOM Commander
Nomination Hearing, April 15, 2009Mission Statement: USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes, and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.
Focus: USCYBERCOM will fuse the Department’s full spectrum of cyberspace operations and will plan, coordinate, integrate, synchronize, and conduct activities to: lead day-to-day defense and protection of DoD information networks; coordinate DoD operations providing support to military missions; direct the operations and defense of specified DoD information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations. The command is charged with pulling together existing cyberspace resources, creating synergy that does not currently exist and synchronizing war-fighting effects to defend the information security environment.
USCYBERCOM will centralize command of cyberspace operations, strengthen DoD cyberspace capabilities, and integrate and bolster DoD’s cyber expertise. Consequently, USCYBERCOM will improve DoD’s capabilities to ensure resilient, reliable information and communication networks, counter cyberspace threats, and assure access to cyberspace. USCYBERCOM’s efforts will also support the Armed Services’ ability to confidently conduct high-tempo, effective operations as well as protect command and control systems and the cyberspace infrastructure supporting weapons system platforms from disruptions, intrusions and attacks.
The Seal: The eagle, our national symbol, is revered for the keen eyesight that allows it to pierce the darkness and remain vigilant to protect us.
It is not surprising that the US Government's newly appointed head of Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency, responsible for all military and diplomatic information and communications security, shows up in Afghanistan three days after Wikileaks data dumps the Afghan War Diary 75,000 files.
For whom else does the buck stop for the first cyberwar defeat since US Cyber Command was established except General Keith Alexander?
And why else would the first ever photos of Alexander's visit to a war zone be published by the Defense Department except to signal he is ultimately responsible to determine how the defeat occurred and what must be done to prevent recurrence -- as soon as possible.
To take command of the investigation, to personally look at the circumstances of defeat right there where the intelligence originated, was collated and passed up the line for use by top military commanders.
Cyberspy boots were surely shaking while awaiting the master cyberspy's arrival to assign blame for the disaster, put careers in jeopardy with McChrystal-type resignations in the offing, exculpations pre-positioned, underlings to be sacrificed, Bradley Manning one among many -- there just has to be more in his chain of command, in the SIPR operations channel, in the counterintelligence web-of-spooks, in the giant octupus of contractors, behind this unbelievable spillage of secrets.
The photos below show Alexander's arrival with Ft Meade entourage, some of them smiling with delight at being allowed out of the bunker to see the exciting real war of entrails and carcasses not antispetic drone and gunship feeds scrolling plasma screens overhead.
Alexander does not look happy in a field uniform, out the air-conditioned office, out of shape and sweaty, listening to fearful subordinates try to explain what the hell went wrong with the most sophisticated and secure information security system in history, with billions of dollars invested and thousands of jobs at risk.
A system breached not by Israel (maybe), a rogue nation or an aspirant for superpower and WMD capablility, but by a tiny gang of unemployed hackers with the skills to social engineer the SIPR network and then do the same to three highly secure media.
Two of the photos show SCIF facilities at Kandahar Air Base where secret communications are handled and exculpations pleaded. One shows a SCIF door on an inside bunker used for more or less secure apologia.
Will Alexander be asked to resign, if not, why not? Why not Alexander in the brig at Quantico, Bradley Manning exonerated for revealing the Maginot weakness in US cyberdefenses?
A Peace Prize for what hack pack?
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