[Infowarrior] - Military Grooms New Officers For War In Cyberspace

[Richard Forno]

Military Grooms New Officers For War In Cyberspace

By Dan Elliott and Brian Witte, Associated Press

http://news.yahoo.com/military-grooms-officers-war-cyberspace-083354456.html

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo.--The U.S. service academies are ramping up efforts
to groom a new breed of cyberspace warriors to confront increasing threats
to the nation's military and civilian computer networks that control
everything from electrical power grids to the banking system.

Students at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies are taking more courses
and participating in elaborate cyberwarfare exercises as the military
educates a generation of future commanders in the theory and practice of
computer warfare.

The academies have been training cadets in cyber for more than a decade. But
the effort has taken on new urgency amid warnings that hostile nations or
organizations might be capable of crippling attacks on critical networks.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, called cyberattack the top
threat to national security when he presented the annual Worldwide Threat
Assessment to Congress this month. "Threats are more diverse,
interconnected, and viral than at any time in history," his report stated.
"Destruction can be invisible, latent, and progressive."

China-based hackers have long been accused of cyber intrusions, and earlier
this year the cybersecurity firm Mandiant released a report with new details
allegedly linking a secret Chinese military unit to years of cyberattacks
against U.S. companies. This year, The New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal and The Washington Post all reported breaches in their computer
systems and said they suspected Chinese hackers. China denies carrying out
cyberattacks.

On Tuesday, hackers compromised Associated Press Twitter accounts and sent
out a false tweet. AP quickly put out word that the report was false and
that its accounts had been hacked. AP's accounts were shut down until the
problem was corrected.

Once viewed as an obscure and even nerdy pursuit, cyber is now seen as one
of the hottest fields in warfare ‹ "a great career field in the future,"
said Ryan Zacher, a junior at the Air Force Academy outside Colorado
Springs, Colo., who switched from aeronautical engineering to computer
science.

Last year the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., began requiring freshmen
to take a semester on cybersecurity, and it is adding a second required
cyber course for juniors next year.

The school offered a major in cyber operations for the first time this year
to the freshman class, and 33 midshipmen, or about 3 percent of the
freshmen, signed up for it. Another 79 are majoring in computer engineering,
information technology or computer science, bringing majors with a computer
emphasis to about 10 percent of the class.

"There's a great deal of interest, much more than we could possibly,
initially, entertain," said the academy's superintendent, Vice Adm. Michael
Miller.

Since 2004, the Air Force Academy has offered a degree in computer
science-cyberwarfare ‹ initially called computer science-information
assurance ‹ that requires cadets to take courses in cryptology, information
warfare and network security in addition to standard computer science. The
academy is retooling a freshman computing course so that more than half its
content is about cyberspace, and is looking into adding another cyber
course.

"All of these cadets know that they are going to be on the front lines
defending the nation in cyber," said Martin Carlisle, a computer science
professor at the Air Force Academy and director of the school's Center for
Cyberspace Research.

About 25 Air Force cadets will graduate this year with the computer
science-cyberwarfare degree, and many will go on to advanced studies and
work in their service's cyber headquarters or for U.S. Cyber Command at Fort
Meade, Md., the Defense Department command responsible for defensive and
offensive cyberwarfare.

Almost every Army cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.,
takes two technology courses related to such topics as computer security and
privacy. West Point also offers other cyber courses, and a computer security
group meets weekly. One of the biggest cybersecurity challenges is keeping
up with the head-spinning pace of change in the field.

"You know American history is pretty much the same" every year, said Lt.
Col. David Raymond, who teaches a cybersecurity course. "In this domain,
it's really tough to keep up with how this thing evolves."

In his congressional report, Clapper noted that the chance of a major attack
by Russia, China or another nation with advanced cyber skills is remote
outside a military conflict ‹ but that other nations or groups could launch
less sophisticated cyberattacks in hopes of provoking the United States or
in retaliation for U.S. actions or policies overseas. South Korea accused
North Korea of mounting a cyberattack in March that shut down thousands of
computers at banks and television broadcasters.

Gen. Keith Alexander, head of U.S. Cyber Command, told Congress in March the
command is creating teams to carry out both offensive and defensive
operations. A spokesman said the command is drawing cyber officers from the
service academies, officer schools and Reserve Officer Training Corps
programs.

Teams from the three academies compete in events such as last week's
National Security Agency Cyber Defense Exercise, in which they try to keep
simulated computer networks running as an NSA "aggressor team" attacks.
Teams from the U.S. Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies also took
part, along with graduate students from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
and Canada's Royal Military College.

Air Force won among undergraduate schools. The Royal Military College won
among graduate schools.

That hands-on experience is invaluable, said 2nd Lt. Jordan Keefer, a 2012
Air Force Academy graduate now pursuing a master's degree in cyberoperations
at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

"You can't just go out there and start hacking. That's against the law," he
said. The competitions, he said, "gave me actual experience defending a
network, attacking a network."

Counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, noting that really high-level
computer skills are rare, suggested the military might have to re-examine
some of its recruiting standards to attract the most adept cyberwarriors.

"Hackers are the 1 percent, the elite and the creators," said Clarke, who
served as White House cybersecurity adviser during the Clinton
administration. "I wouldn't worry a whole heck of a lot (about whether they)
can they run fast or lift weights."

Cyber's appeal was enough to get Keefer to put aside his dream of becoming a
fighter pilot, a job with undeniable swagger. "It's a challenge, and for
people who like a challenge, it's the only place to be," Keefer said.

Witte reported from Annapolis, Md. Associated Press Writer Michael Hill in
Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.


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