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By Mark Henricks
The Army general named to head up the new military Cyber Command that will give the U.S. the ability to launch attacks against enemy computer networks has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Keith Alexander, who won a promotion to four-star general along with the job, is a 35-year veteran of military IT whose experience includes a combat stint with Desert Shield in the first Iraq war.
Alexander has four master’s degrees, including one in electronic warfare. But the most important item on his resume is one that he will be keeping current. That is his ongoing position as head of the National Security Agency (NSA), the government’s top secret electronic intelligence-gathering unit based in Fort Meade, Va. Alexander has headed the NSA since 2005.
The new Cyber Command, which was ordained by Defense Secretary Robert Gates last year, will be operational in October. It will absorb two existing entities, the Joint Functional Component Command for Network Warfare and the Joint Task Force for Network Operations.
The new entity will build on NSA’s existing capabilities in cracking foreign networks for information-gathering purposes. To that it will add, for the first time, the ability of the U.S. military to launch cyber-attacks on networks controlling enemy weapons, power grids, transportation, telecommunications and financial institutions.
Alexander’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee took place in April, six months after he had been tapped for the job. The confirmation was delayed, in part, because of concerns that strategies and protocols for how the new cyber-command would work with the Department of Homeland Security, which has overlapping responsibilities in the event of an electronic attack, had not been fully worked out.
During the hearings, Alexander acknowledged that coordinating the Pentagon, Homeland Security and private entities in the event of a major cyber-threat was the initial challenge facing him. He said the Department of Homeland Security would lead defenses against cyber-attacks on non-military digital assets, such as the financial network or the power grid, that were essential to public safety and security. The Pentagon’s role would be to assist DHS by providing advance warning and technical support.
At the hearings, Alexander said that the Cyber Command’s primary duties would be to help secure the U.S. against cyber-attacks, including identifying attackers and reducing vulnerability. He also said that under the right circumstances the U.S. had to be able to launch a cyber-assault on a foe. However, Alexander denied that the result would be to militarize cyberspace.
Separately, a Defense Department official outlined the scope of the threat facing the military. At a Washington lecture, James Miller, deputy undersecretary for policy, said more than 100 foreign intelligence groups each day targeted millions of probes day against 15,000 networks, including 7 million devices, run by the Department of Defense. The networks are located in 88 countries at 4,000 installations.
Miller said that one of the priorities in developing the nation’s ability to withstand cyber-attacks was clearly distinguishing between acts of war and ordinary hacking and vandalism. Most of the problem so far has been from data theft, he said, but the military also needs to be able to defend against attacks that attempt to disable or disrupt its information systems.
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