DoD unprepared for cyber-war

According to the latest annual report from J. Michael Gilmore, Pentagon Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, the DoD abilities are "not sufficient to prevent an advanced adversary from adversely affecting the missions that were being exercised." It goes on to claim that the Defence Department's posture for warding off cyber-attacks has in some aspects worsened over the last year, despite small improvements in network defence. One issue the report focuses on is the declining quality of exercises claiming, "The cyber threat portrayed during assessed exercises remains consistently below that expected from a nation-state level adversary." The report also showed a decrease in the use of backup files and systems, proper audit logging, logical access controls, incident planning and vulnerability management; alongside an increase in high-risk vulnerabilities observed and a decrease in effective use of anti-virus tools and software.

To improve DoD’s cyber-defence capabilities, Gilmore’s office has proposed upgrades to assessment capabilities and the infrastructure of the Joint Information Operations Range. He warns fiscal constraints will “likely limit the speed with which these important capabilities are acquired.” Gilmore identified $90 million requirement to upgrade the range of operations alone, another $59 million to provide more capabilities for realistic threat development and assessment and an additional $46 million to support assessments during COCOM annual exercises.
 

In an attempt to build-up preventative measures to defend against cyber-attacks the SDA’s cyber-initiative will be debating “Improving global cyber-governance,” on Monday 30th January. At this event the SDA will be also be launching its latest cyber-study report entitled "The vexed question of global rules." To attend this event, please register here.