Blog Posts tagged with "cyber"
Is it easier to train a cyber warrior to be a soldier or train a soldier to be a cyber warrior?
Some say it’s easier to train a cyber warrior (military specialists, law enforcement officials, computer forensics experts and civil engineers who defend national and economic security assets) to be a soldier while others say it’s easier to train a soldier to be a cyber warrior. So, which is it?
The EUCOM delegation meets with Norwegian Defense Cyber Academy students after a night of cyber combat operations.
Major General Roar Sundseth, Commander of the Norwegian Armed Forces Cyber Command invited a European Command cyber delegation to his headquarters near Lilliehammer, Norway, for initial briefings and cross-talks in order to establish a long-term working relationship, and to develop and strengthen international ties and cooperation and outline the scope of future engagement activities.
During this trip, we had the opportunity to visit the Norway Defense Cyber Academy (Cyber Training School). This military university provides a four year bachelor degree programme for commissioned officers in Information and Communication Technology, with a specialization in computer network operations and system management in the physical domain and the cyber domain.
As future combat cyber warriors the students must continually develop their soldier skills and learn to cope with whatever challenges the operating environment may present. Here we see a tactical river crossing during the infiltration phase of the cyber.
From day one, both the military profession and use of command and control information systems (C2IS) is integrated into the academic curriculum. Year 1 focuses on self-reliance and basic leadership/fundamental computer engineering; Year 2 - leadership and confidence/majors in computer systems and networks; Year 3 - practical application of leadership under demanding field conditions/specializing in systems management and computer network operations; and Year 4 - pursuing a bachelor thesis in cooperation with their unit and commissioned officer.
Practical applications through military exercises are a fundamental component of the academic curriculum. The most important lab is a two week exercise conducted for 2nd year students. CYBER ENDURANCE is a mentally and physically demanding exercise designed to:
1) Give the students EXPERIENCE in how to operate effectively in demanding, high pressure situations;
2) Allow the students to apply and gain KNOWLEDGE;
3) Create an environment to practice old and develop new SKILLS;
4) Set aside time for reflection;
5) Educate and develop the student’s use of COPING strategies; and
6) Make the students realize their POTENTIAL.
Once the students arrived at the objective they were faced with a number of complex technical tasks that required the Applying many aspects of the academic curriculum in a tactical setting.
These goals are achieved by replicating a stressful military environment with complex technical missions over a protracted time period with continuous physically conditioning, uncertainty and gradual sleep and food deprivation. There are three phases within the exercise. Phase 1 replicates pre-deployment training, Phase 2 is five days of combat cyber operations (environment and terrain- rural and urban phase); and Phase 3 is reflection. During the last phase, individual and teams identify their vulnerabilities, accept weaknesses and turn them into strengths. They are encouraged to blog to express their thoughts.
On the day of our visit to the academy, students had just returned exhausted from an all night operation. While I had spent a comfortable night sleeping in my bed, they had been out all night conducting the urban phase of their combat cyber operations. Students were exhausted and given some downtime to decompress and reflect.
Which is it? Train a cyber warrior to be a soldier or train a soldier to be a cyber warrior? Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or comments, contact the International Cyber Engagement (ICE) team at ICE@eucom.mil.
Stephanie A. Dantzler
International Cyber Engagement Chief
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Cyber Defense Partnerships Lead to Lasting Relationships
Increasing our partners’ cyber defense postures to protect and defend against threats and vulnerabilities which disrupt free use of the global information grid is a top priority here at EUCOM where we are committed to building enduring cyber defense partnerships with Albania and other NATO and Partnership for Peace (PfP) countries.
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Connecting public and private efforts to create security in the 21st century
I'm thinking about how to connect public and private efforts to create security. In this turbulent 21st century, security is not about creating walls. We won't deliver a secure world strictly from the barrel of a gun.
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First-Ever Regional Cyber Endeavor Seminar Held in Montenegro
I spent last week in the warm and hospitable city of Podgorica, Montenegro, with a EUCOM team executing the first-ever regional Cyber Endeavor event.
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Cyber Endeavor 2012 – Building Cyber Defense Capacity in our Partner Nations
Shaun Cavanaugh here again to give you an update on what’s been going on with Cyber Endeavor since my last update in June of last year.
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Trojans, Malware and Botnets got you down…?
We know that cyber attacks are employed not just for cyber crime (i.e. to access your bank account), but also to discredit national agencies and governments (i.e. the cyber attacks against Estonia and Georgia). It is incumbent on all of us to “know our enemy” to best defend against such attacks. The best means for doing so is for governments to regularly partner with academia and the private sector (i.e. with IT safety enterprises) to form a sort of cyber coalition.
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National Cyber Security Awareness Month: How are you protecting your cyber-identity?
This “two-factor” login significantly increases the level of protection used for that account and is also the system used when withdrawing money out of the bank. As we approach the end of October’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), I wanted to draw attention to a similar strategy that is available to help protect personal accounts from abuse.
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Cyber Education: Why it's important to You
Shaun Cavanaugh's thoughts on formal cyber education and workforce development.
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October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month
How will you help protect the networks that are used as a tool to assist warfighters, planners, and commanders by preserving freedom of action in Cyberspace?
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The clock is winding down to the start of Cyber Endeavor 2011
In my previous blog, I told you what Cyber Endeavor was all about. In this post, I’ll go over where we are at with CyE, who is providing seminars at the event, and the topics those seminars are going to cover. At this latest planning conference, we spent our time finalizing the schedule and agenda, as well as recruiting more participants from all of the nations in attendance. The conference was a success and we are on target to have an even better CyE than last year.
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Effective Partnering for Cyber Security
A little over a week ago, at the request of EUCOM, the U.S. Embassy in Riga and the Latvian government, a small group of cyber security experts donated their time and expertise to conduct a strategic assessment of Latvia’s cyber security infrastructure.
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Protecting our Cyber Ecosystem
On April 22, we celebrate Earth Day, a day intended to reflect appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. You are probably thinking, “How can we apply the concept of ecosystems to the man-made domain of cyberspace?” A recently published Department of Homeland Security (DHS) whitepaper, “Enabling Distributed Security in Cyberspace,” describes the need for a healthy and resilient cyber ecosystem. Similar to natural ecosystems, cyber ecosystems have a variety of diverse participants, including private firms, non-profits, governments, individuals, processes, and cyber devices. These cyber species interact at machine speed and can have a positive and a negative impact on the cyber ecosystem.
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CYBER ENDEAVOR 2011 Mid Planning Conference in Lisbon, Portugal
Last week, William Poole and I (EUCOM Cyber Defense Division International Information Assurance Branch) wrapped up the Cyber Endeavor portion of the Combined Endeavor 2011 mid-planning conference. Let me give you a little background on Cyber Endeavor. Educators and technical professionals from governmental organizations, industry, and academia, provide cyber defense familiarization to audiences from an estimated 40 countries. Cyber Endeavor is the premier forum for international military, industry and academic professionals to collaborate and improve partnerships with the end goal of strengthening collective cyber defense capabilities.
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Cyber Defense is a Team Sport
The theme of this conference was “Empowering a Cyber Defense Workforce" and included over one hundred participants with 40 partner cyber defenders from 18 countries, NATO, and other international organizations. The cheer squad came from USEUCOM's components, DoD agencies and industry.
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Off to Lisbon!
Currently, 28 NATO Heads of States and Governments (HoSG) are expected to convene at the NATO Summit. Over a series of meetings, our leaders will discuss a handful of issues central to the future security of Europe and North America, focusing on the new strategic concept and its subsequent implementation: crisis management; missile defense; the comprehensive approach; cyber security; and NATO headquarters and command structure reform.
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Rough Waters in the Cyber Sea
Just back from Romania and Bulgaria, two countries that truly support U.S. and NATO efforts around the world. One thing we talked about was the cyber world and the implications for all of our nations.
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A Week on Capitol Hill
As I told you in my last blog, I spent this past week on Capitol Hill. I testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction (HAC MILCON).
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Exploring the "Cyber Sea"
They cyber world really caught my attention about a year ago when my daughter’s Facebook account was pirated and her identity used for a swindle. Ugh!
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The New Year with European Command and Our Partner Nations
Happy Twenty Ten from U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany!
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Your Questions on Afghanistan and Russia
First, let us clearly understand that EVERY nation in NATO is "in the fight" in Afghanistan. This is a committed alliance.
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Switzerland takes part in Combined Endeavor for the 11th time
As you have read previously in this blog, Combined Endeavor is the world’s largest international Command, Control, Communications & Computers (C4) exercise. Participants of CE09 include nations within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Partnership for Peace (PfP) or other International Organisations. In recent years most NATO and PfP Nations have been taking part in Peace Supporting Operations (PSOs). Over 1000 participants from more than 40 nations take part in two weeks of intensive technical testing.
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What is the South-Eastern Europe Brigade (SEEBRIG)?
Here at Combined Endeavor 09, we have participating organizations in addition to country participants. One of the organizations -- NATO -- is familiar to many people. SEEBRIG, however, is not as well known, so I want to take a few minutes to tell you about it.
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Excellence in Action: Combined Endeavor’s Regional Site in Denmark
This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting the national delegations at Combined Endeavor 2009’s regional site at Bülows Kaserne, Fredericia, Denmark. Delegations at this site are from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia and Sweden with additional support personnel from the United States, Austria and Germany.
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Prepping for CE09
Tomorrow, I'll be gathering my gear and moving into my temporary home at Banja Luca, Bosnia-Herzegovina to do my part within EUCOM's Combined Endeavor 09 exercise.
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Connecting Stuttgart to BiH
Well, the Tandbergs worked between here and Stuttgart! What's a Tandberg? It is a point-to-point (or multipoint) teleconferencing tool used by many commercial firms as well as by many nations. The screen looks like a portrait-sized computer screen (in other words, a normal computer screen turned 90 degrees) and there's a camera embedded into the top of the screen. With this tool, individuals can sit at their desk and communicate with any number of others for video conferences.
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Transforming the Main Operating Base
Things are going well as Kozara Barracks is being transformed into a large telecommunications site to support the Main Operating Base of Combined Endeavor 2009 (CE09). We are finalizing contracts, continuing to build the main operating base infrastructure, and installing several networks which will serve as the backbone for our daily communications during the communications interoperability testing. There are as many Bosnia and Herzogovina military support personnel on the ground here as there are members from the CE staff and early participants!
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Combined Endeavor 2009
CE – Combined Endeavor – is a large telecommunications exercise sponsored by EUCOM but planned and executed by our partner nations. This year, 2009, we are moving the exercise out of Germany for the first time in our 14 year history to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a big enough challenge planning this exercise, but this year we add the challenge of building a new infrastructure to support the exercise.
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