By WILLIAM MATTHEWS
Published: 20 Oct 2010 11:39
The U.S. Defense Department is quietly taking on an expanding role in
defending U.S. critical infrastructure from cyber attacks.
In a break with previous policy, the military now is prepared to provide
cyber expertise to other government agencies and to certain private
companies to counter attacks on their computer networks, the Pentagon's
cyber policy chief, Robert Butler, said Oct. 20.
An agreement signed this month with the Department of Homeland Security and
an earlier initiative to protect companies in the defense industrial base
make it likely that the military will be a key part of any response to a
cyber attack.
While the Department of Homeland Security officially remains the lead
government agency on cyber defense, the new agreement "sets up an
opportunity for DHS to take advantage of the expertise" in the Pentagon, and
particularly the secretive electronic spying agency, the National Security
Agency, said Butler, who is a deputy assistant defense secretary.
The two agencies - Defense and Homeland Security - "will help each other in
more tangible ways then they have in the past," Butler told a group of
defense reporters.
Among other things, a senior DHS cyber official and other DHS employees will
move to the NSA to be closer to the heart of the military's cyber defense
capability. Closer collaboration provides "an opportunity to look at new
ways that we can do national cyber incident response, he said.
"DoD's focus is really about getting into the mix. We want to plan together
and work together with other departments" to ensure that they understand the
military's cyber capabilities and that the military understands what other
agencies and private companies can do for cyber defense, Butler said.
Improving agency and industry "situational awareness" in cyberspace is a
central objective, Butler said.
Developing and maintaining a clear picture of the threats in cyberspace
remains difficult, apparently even for the NSA. In part, that's because new
uses for the Internet are invented every day, Butler said, and it's not
always clear whether new activity is harmful or benign. Even the Defense
Department is still "in the mode of understanding."
In the event of a cyber attack, it's still extremely difficult to tell who
is attacking. It's not even clear what constitutes an attack.
"As we move forward, one of the key things we have is to agree on is the
taxonomy," he said. There is lots of discussion about "cyberwar," "cyber
attacks," and "hostile intent," but there is no agreement on exactly what
those terms mean.
Developing standard definitions remains under discussion among U.S.
government agencies and between international governments and organizations,
he said.
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