US to launch cyber mission force

The secretary of Defense, Ash Carter announced that the US will be setting up a  Cyber Mission Force by 2018.

This force, he said, will comprise of 133 active teams who will be ready at all times. He also said the teams will be divided into four groups.

The four groups are:

National Mission.

Cyber Protection.

Combat Mission and Support.

He explained that the National Mission teams will ‘defend the United States and its interests against cyberattacks of significant consequence,’ the Cyber Protection team will watch all the Department of Defense systems and networks.

The Combat Mission team will handle the internet warfront while the Support teams help the National and Combat mission teams whenever the need arises.

Also the formation of a US Digital Service is in the pipeline. This group will be vested with the responsibility to ‘help solve some of our most intractable IT and data problems in DOD,’ Carter said.

Industry experts say this is in response to the various cyber threats that have hit the US.

You will recall that undefinedand recently, the Pentagon claimed that hackers from Russia gained access to an un-patched vulnerable network.

Others say it is to send a strong message to countries like China who has boasted of a strong and capable Cyber army.