Pentagon to quintuple cyber defense personnel

Rick

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Although yet to be formally announced, a report by the Washington Post reveals plans by the Department of Defense to bolster its Cyber Command unit. The Pentagon's cyber defense force is currently comprised of roughly 900 military and civilian personnel, but that number will be increased to 4,900 over the next "several years", say anonymous officials familiar with the matter.

The five-fold increase in staff will be driven in part by the creation of three brand-new, specialized units: Combat Mission Forces, Cyber Protection Forces and National Mission Forces. The protection unit will focus on securing DoD networks while its National Mission Forces branch will aim to protect domestic security and economic interests such as power grids. The remaining department, Combat Mission Forces, will be Cyber Command's International attack dog -- it'll be used to assist in offensive operations abroad.

The U.S. military's expansion of nerds like results from the rapidly increasing number of cyber attacks launched each year. Some of those attacks have also embarrassed the U.S. government, like McKinnon's military network intrusion and the recent defacement of the U.S. Sentencing Commission's website which allowed visitors to play asteroids on ussc.gov.

Cyber Command was created to tackle issues like these head on just a few years ago, but according to officials, the agency spends much of its resources fleshing out policies, frameworks and legal definitions rather than battling cyber threats in the field. The addition of a few thousand staff members should help the agency focus more on active security. It's unclear how Cyber Command will compliment the NSA, seeing as their goals overlap in some areas.

In 2010, the U.S. Secretary of Defense voiced his concerns about "huge" cyber threats looming in our future. With the developed world relying so much on sophisticated technologies prone to hacking, it seems there is an increasingly palpable danger where cyberspace and physical space converge.

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"Cyber Command was created to tackle issues like these head on just a few years ago, but according to officials, the agency spends much of its resources fleshing out policies, frameworks and legal definitions rather than battling cyber threats in the field. "

Yeah, it's the govt. There's always more red tape to make sure everyone's arse is covered than there is actual effective work.

Seriously though... offensive cyber attacks is something we need to get ahead on. In 2003 we invaded Iraq to get rid of Saddam and it cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives. 10 years later we infected Iran's nuclear centrifuges with a virus that caused them to slow down just enough to not be effective at enriching uranium. Now all we have to do is keep twitter working and their own citizens will revolt. How much easier is that!

Next on the list is North Korea. They're building bigger missiles every year.
 
And the internet police are created................................

Actually, it said their three functions of the three groups are securing DoD networks, securing "economic interests such as power grids" and "offensive operations abroad"

Where do you get internet police out of that? Or do you think those explanations are just a cover for the real purpose, which is more govt intrusion in our life? I'm not being factious... As the govt provides more and more for us (like healthcare) they're going to keep a better eye on us. Just wait till we have cars that drive 55mpg and the govt is getting less gas tax revenue. They'll put a GPS in your car so they can tax your mileage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_miles_traveled_tax
 
Mike
We all know the govt. We all know that the govt only tells us what they want us to know. Even when the govt is telling the "truth", half of it is lies. I get my supposition simply because, its the govt. We all know some Lawmaker is going to say" Hey, we have all these cyber nerds, lets utilize them to thier fullest!" Hence more govt intrusion on the web. Less freedoms for us. More control for the govt.
 
This will just make it harder for them to work effectively since there will be just that much more people that have to cooperate together. Instead of a whole bunch of mediocre workers they should narrow it down to very few highly skilled specialist, that way less tax money is wasted and they will be able to accomplish better work. I guess what I'm saying is kind of analogous to a Navy SEALs group and an army.
 
It's too late anonymous hacked the us sentancing website and has solid evidence of the us supplying syrian rebels with chemical weapons to start a holy war. Anon calls this op #LastResort

America is about to finally awake
 
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