Pentagon
designing cyber 'scorecard' to stay ahead of hackers
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[September 18, 2015]
By Andrea Shalal
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (Reuters) - The U.S.
Defense Department is building a massive, electronic system to provide
an overview of the vulnerabilities of the military's computer networks,
weapons systems, and installations, and help officials prioritize how to
fix them, the deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command said on Thursday.
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Air Force Lieutenant General Kevin McLaughlin told Reuters officials
should reach agreement on a framework within months, with a goal of
turning the system into an automated "scorecard" in coming years.
The effort, being led by the Pentagon's chief information officer,
grew out of a critical report about cyber threats released earlier
this year by the Pentagon's chief weapons tester, and escalating
cyber attacks by China and Russia.
The report by Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of testing
and evaluation, warned that nearly every major U.S. weapons system
was vulnerable to cyber attacks.
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Initial data entry would be done by hand, but the goal was to create
a fully automated system that would help defense officials
instantaneously detect and respond to cyber attacks, McLaughlin said
after a speech at the annual Billington Cybersecurity Summit.
McLaughlin told the conference that Cyber Command had already set up
about half of 133 planned cyber response teams with about 6,200
people, and all of them would achieve an initial operational
capability by the end of 2016.
He said the initial focus of the new scorecard would be on the
greatest threats, including weapons systems fielded 30 years ago
before the cyber threat was fully understand, as well as newer
systems that were not secure enough.
"There’s probably not enough money in the world to fix all those
things, but the question is what’s most important, where should we
put our resources as we eat the elephant one bite at a time," he
said.
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McLaughlin said the scorecard was initially intended to look at
weapons and networks, but the Pentagon was now looking at a broader
and more sophisticated approach that also accounted for how data was
moved among agencies within the military.
U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force officials, who also spoke at the
event, mapped out their own cybersecurity efforts, citing new levels
of communication and collaboration among the services around these
issues.
McLaughlin said U.S. military commanders were far more attuned to
cyber threats than in earlier years. He said Cyber Command spot
checks and inspections were now being flagged to the command's top
leader, Admiral Mike Rogers, which had spurred greater
accountability than in earlier years.
(Editing by David Gregorio and Stephen Coates)
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