Military ‘cyber command’ to accompany Obama’s security efforts

Stars and Stripes
May 30, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare, The New York Times reported …

The military command would complement a civilian effort announced Friday by President Obama to overhaul the way the United States safeguards its computer networks …

The decision to create a cybercommand is a major step beyond those taken by the Bush administration, which authorized several computer-based attacks but never resolved the question of how the government would prepare for a new era of warfare fought over digital networks …

Obama made no mention of the proposed cybercommand in a speech Friday about cybersecurity.

However, he noted that Defense Department networks are constantly under attack, and servicemembers lost the ability to use thumb drives and other external memory devices last year after a virus affected thousands of department computers.

He also mentioned that the Russians launched an effective cyber attack during their invasion of Georgia last year …

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63001