Gen. Keith Alexander

Land Warfare

Army Fights Culture Gap Between Cyber & Ops: ‘Dolphin Speak’

ARLINGTON: “We needed to learn to speak infantry,” said Col. William Hartman, commander of the Army’s first offensive cyber operations brigade. That’s not easy. When one of Hartman’s teams joined a brigade of the 25th Infantry Division for an exercise this spring, the colonel recounted, the 25th’s commanding general told Hartman that his cyber operators […]

Networks & Digital Warfare

Navy Submariner Takes Pentagon Cyber Post

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon named a Navy cryptologist to a top cyber policy position today. Rear Adm. Sean Filipowski, who’ll get his second star with the new job, is a protégé of former NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander. Filipowski even served as Alexander’s intelligence chief at US Cyber Command — a position that requires keeping on […]

presented by
Networks & Digital Warfare

US Flying Blind To Looming Terror Plots

There’s an old trope in intelligence circles that defenders have to be right all the time, while the terrorists only need to get lucky once to execute a successful attack. The knowledge that no one is right all the time makes most counterterrorism experts cautiously pessimistic about the likelihood of another successful terrorist attack on […]

Networks & Digital Warfare

National Guard Fights For Cyber Role In 2015 Budget

Chinese and Russian hackers have everybody running scared. So whatever else happens with the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2015, we know it will include more money for things cyber, from purely defensive network security to black-budget “offensive cyber weapons” such as the Stuxnet worm. But one big thing remains in doubt: the role […]

Breaking Defense

After Pledging Huge IT Savings, Can NSA’s Alexander Deliver?

ORLANDO: Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency and Cyber Command, told a standing-room-only crowd at the annual Geoint intelligence conference last year that the NSA and its sister intelligence agencies could save one third or more on their information technology costs by moving to the so-called cloud. Given that Director of National […]

presented by
Breaking Defense

NSA’s Alexander Courts Chamber Of Commerce On Cybersecurity

WASHINGTON: NSA director and Cyber Command chief Gen. Keith Alexander stepped into the lion’s den today to address the Chamber of Commerce, which helped kill cybersecurity legislation Alexander had strongly backed. Over and over, Alexander reassured the business-dominated audience at the Chamber’s cybersecurity conference today that the government sought to work together with industry as […]

Networks & Digital Warfare
Breaking Defense

Defense, Deterrence Can Work In Cyberspace, But Don’t Forget Offense

CAPITOL HILL: Maybe cyberspace isn’t as fragile as it’s made out to be. “Relax, Chicken Little, the sky isn’t falling,” said Columbia professor Abraham Wagner. “Protection ultimately is easier than penetration.” Wagner’s argument reverses the conventional wisdom that the attacker always has the advantage online. A forthcoming study by the Cyber Conflict Studies Association, for […]

Breaking Defense

Deterrence Doesn’t Work in Cyberspace: CCSA

WASHINGTON: Cyberspace is an inherently unstable realm where traditional strategic concepts of deterrence and defense break down – and it’s the United States that has the most to lose from that instability, warns a forthcoming report from the Cyber Conflict Studies Association. “The Cyber Conflict Studies Association’s two-year study has lead to the sobering conclusion […]