An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

The Cyber Defense Review

 
Home > CDR Content > Articles > Article View

A Case for Action: Changing the Focus of National Cyber Defense

By Rob Schrier | November 15, 2019

PRINT

The United States government has made major strides in the past year in improving our nation’s cyber defense with initiatives such as the creation of the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the new DoD Defend Forward policies. However, our nation’s emphasis re­mains focused on improving collaboration and synchronization primarily to improve reac­tion and response to a cyber incidents and attacks. We must change the goal to move our emphasis to the “left of boom,” to create processes and capabilities to prevent, deter and preempt cyber-attacks against our critical infrastructure, as well as interdict and counter those attacks as they are unfolding. We need to regard response as our last resort. We must create a transformative effort to focus speed, agility, unity of purpose, and early warning and to fully incorporate private industry and other partners. Equally important, we cannot revolutionize cyber defense without including an emphasis on defending our democracy, our society and the truth itself from cyber driven influence attacks. I propose the creation of a national level 24/7 cyber defense operational capability with an initial pilot operation focused on defending our democracy in the U.S 2020 elections.

So is our original goal possible? Can we move our cyber defense largely “left of boom”? Can we defend against influence attacks? Can all this be practically achieved? Yes, we can decide to dramatically improve the defense of our critical infrastructure and defend our de­mocracy within our existing laws and policies in a more preemptive and effective manner. We must feel a sense of urgency to accomplish this. This is not a philosophical discussion based on the assumption that the wolves could reach our gates. Because we have ceded our adversaries too much access, the wolves are already inside our gates. Our adversaries have been, are now, and will be conducting increasingly bold and sophisticated attacks against US critical infrastructure and our democracy. We have every reason to expect these cyber and influence attacks will grow more serious. The increasing risks to democracy and, more broadly, to our way of life are too worrisome to ignore.

 

Read More: A Case for Action: Changing the Focus of National Cyber Defense

PRINT


US Army Comments Policy
If you wish to comment, use the text box below. Army reserves the right to modify this policy at any time.

This is a moderated forum. That means all comments will be reviewed before posting. In addition, we expect that participants will treat each other, as well as our agency and our employees, with respect. We will not post comments that contain abusive or vulgar language, spam, hate speech, personal attacks, violate EEO policy, are offensive to other or similar content. We will not post comments that are spam, are clearly "off topic", promote services or products, infringe copyright protected material, or contain any links that don't contribute to the discussion. Comments that make unsupported accusations will also not be posted. The Army and the Army alone will make a determination as to which comments will be posted. Any references to commercial entities, products, services, or other non-governmental organizations or individuals that remain on the site are provided solely for the information of individuals using this page. These references are not intended to reflect the opinion of the Army, DoD, the United States, or its officers or employees concerning the significance, priority, or importance to be given the referenced entity, product, service, or organization. Such references are not an official or personal endorsement of any product, person, or service, and may not be quoted or reproduced for the purpose of stating or implying Army endorsement or approval of any product, person, or service.

Any comments that report criminal activity including: suicidal behaviour or sexual assault will be reported to appropriate authorities including OSI. This forum is not:

  • This forum is not to be used to report criminal activity. If you have information for law enforcement, please contact OSI or your local police agency.
  • Do not submit unsolicited proposals, or other business ideas or inquiries to this forum. This site is not to be used for contracting or commercial business.
  • This forum may not be used for the submission of any claim, demand, informal or formal complaint, or any other form of legal and/or administrative notice or process, or for the exhaustion of any legal and/or administrative remedy.

Army does not guarantee or warrant that any information posted by individuals on this forum is correct, and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information. Army may not be able to verify, does not warrant or guarantee, and assumes no liability for anything posted on this website by any other person. Army does not endorse, support or otherwise promote any private or commercial entity or the information, products or services contained on those websites that may be reached through links on our website.

Members of the media are asked to send questions to the public affairs through their normal channels and to refrain from submitting questions here as comments. Reporter questions will not be posted. We recognize that the Web is a 24/7 medium, and your comments are welcome at any time. However, given the need to manage federal resources, moderating and posting of comments will occur during regular business hours Monday through Friday. Comments submitted after hours or on weekends will be read and posted as early as possible; in most cases, this means the next business day.

For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain "on-topic." This means that comments will be posted only as it relates to the topic that is being discussed within the blog post. The views expressed on the site by non-federal commentators do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Army or the Federal Government.

To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personally identifiable information, such as name, Social Security number, DoD ID number, OSI Case number, phone numbers or email addresses in the body of your comment. If you do voluntarily include personally identifiable information in your comment, such as your name, that comment may or may not be posted on the page. If your comment is posted, your name will not be redacted or removed. In no circumstances will comments be posted that contain Social Security numbers, DoD ID numbers, OSI case numbers, addresses, email address or phone numbers. The default for the posting of comments is "anonymous", but if you opt not to, any information, including your login name, may be displayed on our site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this comment policy. We encourage your participation in our discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.

Help & Support

Resources

Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil Veterans Crisis Line