U.S. in cyberwar 'late to the game'

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. military has been active in cyberspace longer than it has been in the air -- if you use the Air Force definition.

Lani Kass, a senior adviser to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley, quoted the chief’s definition of the cyber domain, “From DC (direct current) to daylight” -- the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

“Anyone who talks about cyberspace as computers alone doesn’t get it,” she told the Air Force Association Wednesday. Any kind of signaling, transmission or processing that uses the electromagnetic spectrum -- from short-wave radios to GPS -- is part of the cyber domain.

Under that definition, said Kass, the U.S. military, which used the telegraph -- “the Victorian Internet” -- before it first deployed aircraft, had been in the cyber domain first.

But Kass, who has led the chief’s Cyberspace Task Force since its formation in January last year, acknowledged that, historical anecdote aside, “We are late to the game.”

“The first battle in any future war … is going to be for control of cyber(space),” she predicted.

The Air Force stood up a provisional Cyberspace Command last week, and Kass said there were now 40,000 USAF personnel dedicated to cyberwar.

She emphasized the need to develop an offensive cyber capacity. “Not a bunch of geeks,” she said, “I want a bunch of trained killers who understand that non-kinetic does not mean non-lethal.”

“If you are defending in cyberspace, you are late,” she said.

Besides, “The military is neither resourced, nor equipped, nor authorized by law to protect civilian infrastructure.”

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Shaun Waterman, UPI Homeland and National Security Editor