WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- The head of U.S. Strategic Command is calling for a more proactive approach to countering the escalating threat of cyberattacks on Defense Department networks.
Gen. Kevin Chilton, Stratcom commander, said during a recent cybersecurity conference in Nebraska that more needs to be done to protect the Defense Department's global information network. Chilton said Stratcom is facing escalating threats from simple vandalism to potential espionage, the American Forces Press Service reported.
Chilton said that in the last six months, cyberattacks on the Defense Department have cost more than $100 million. He called on defense officials to change the way they think about the computer network and treat the attacks the same as if they were attacks on traditional land, air or sea operations.
"In the last six months, we spent more than $100 million reacting to things on our networks after the fact," Chilton said, according to the news service.
"It would be nice to spend that money proactively. … We need to change the way we conduct ourselves in cyberspace and hold our military folks to the same high standards that we hold our air, land and sea operators to."
