DOD: CYBERCOM ready for business, one month late
Published: November 3, 2010
ARLINGTON, Va. – More than a month later than anticipated, the military’s new U.S. Cyber Command has reached full operating status, the Pentagon said in a release Wednesday.
The notice means the military command has completed several tasks it determined were necessary to meet its mission, including creating a Joint Operations Center and moving hundreds of personnel and authorities from organizations previously charged with cybersecurity.
Cyber Command commander Gen. Keith Alexander said the command “synchronizes” the Defense Department's efforts to defend military computer networks and he said the force will work closely with other federal government agencies.
Last month, the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security announced an agreement that would allow each to monitor the other's cyber operations, in an effort to ensure they don't cross over boundaries of civilian and military authorities. (Read the agreement here.)
"We're not going to have two NSAs, we're going to have one NSA that can appropriately be used for defense purposes but also appropriately used for civilian purposes," DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said last week, at the National Symposium on Homeland Security and Defense in Colorado Springs, Colo.
"That means that we have to, on the civilian side, be particularly cognizant of privacy issues, of civil liberties issues, and we have built that into the memorandum," she said, according to The Associated Press.
In June 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the military to create a cyber command and reach “initial operating capacity” by October 2009, with full status this year. But Congress delayed the process by holding until May 2010 its confirmation for Alexander so that it could force the Pentagon to answer lawmakers’ concerns about blending the commander’s authorities of the secret National Security Agency with a 4-starred military command.
Cyber Command is a sub-unified command under the U.S. Strategic Command.
Related:
Pentagon still reviewing command's full operating status
DOD pressuring defense contractors to shore up computer networks
In the world of cyber security, a question of who's in charge
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