Dobbs Defense Solutions’ Post

The current model for military services providing forces to U.S. Cyber Command is broken, and the only way to fix it is to create an independent Cyber Force, a new report asserts. “America’s cyber force generation system is clearly broken. Fixing it demands nothing less than the establishment of an independent cyber service,” a report published Monday by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies states. “This research paints an alarming picture. The inefficient division of labor between the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps prevents the generation of a cyber force ready to carry out its mission. Recruitment suffers because cyber operations are not a top priority for any of the services … The current system compounds these force-generation challenges. Each of the services has developed its own solutions, leading to both inconsistencies and shortcomings.” https://lnkd.in/et3NxaTB

The current model for military services providing forces to U.S. Cyber Command is broken, and the only way to fix it is to create an independent Cyber Force, a new report asserts. “America’s cyber force generation system is clearly broken. Fixing it demands nothing less than the establishment of an independent cyber service,” a report published Monday by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies states. “This research paints an alarming picture. The inefficient division of labor between the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps prevents the generation of a cyber force ready to carry out its mission. Recruitment suffers because cyber operations are not a top priority for any of the services … The current system compounds these force-generation challenges. Each of the services has developed its own solutions, leading to both inconsistencies and shortcomings.” https://lnkd.in/gNbKnBC5

The current model for military services providing forces to U.S. Cyber Command is broken, and the only way to fix it is to create an independent Cyber Force, a new report asserts. “America’s cyber force generation system is clearly broken. Fixing it demands nothing less than the establishment of an independent cyber service,” a report published Monday by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies states. “This research paints an alarming picture. The inefficient division of labor between the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps prevents the generation of a cyber force ready to carry out its mission. Recruitment suffers because cyber operations are not a top priority for any of the services … The current system compounds these force-generation challenges. Each of the services has developed its own solutions, leading to both inconsistencies and shortcomings.” https://lnkd.in/esd7X_eS

"Assessing the Army’s Cyber Force Structure" – The skill and capacity of Army cyber forces have grown in the decade since their creation. This article focuses on needed structural changes to the Army’s portion of the Cyber Mission Forces. This assessment of the current situation highlights the areas military leadership must address to allow the Army’s cyber forces to continue evolving to meet the needs of multi-domain operations. https://lnkd.in/dhy-H_RM

You are most likely never to see a hospital or law firm headed by someone other than a former lawyer or doctor, but cyber, for some reason, lets anyone lead their units. You might say that great leaders can surround themselves with competent professionals, and their leadership skills will prevail. But history has told a different story, with countless Government breaches and billions of dollars spent on ineffective or duplicative software. How does this affect things? Well, most cyber PM shops are transitory, where civilians and officers come to finish off a career or just sit long enough to get some awards and retire. There is nothing wrong with that, but the chance that someone can come in and recognize dysfunction, ineffectiveness, or, in some cases, even corruption is very small. And then there is the mission; with no relevant cyber or engineering skills or background, how does a leader measure the effectiveness of their OA? Better yet, how do they improve things for the warfighter? Cyber is too important to treat as just an "IT" function. It is the culmination of almost every engineering skill and the ability to break or defend. Our warfighters deserve better.

Interesting Read.

Gen. dyw. Karol Molenda, Dowódca Wojska Obrony Cyberprzestrzeni , podczas Cyber Commanders Forum: “In military doctrine, key terrain refers to areas which, if seized, afford an advantage to an attacker or defender. When applied to geographic terrain, this definition is clear and we are great with identifying the key terrain. However, there is still much work to be done in the cyber domain. Proper identification and defense of the Mission Relevant Terrain - Cyber is crucial to successful combat actions”.  

Sweden has joined NATO. I think this is good for Sweden, for the Swedish Defence Forces, for Swedish defence industry and for Clavister. During service in the Swedish Army I have cooperated with NATO forces. This type of cooperation will become more common and as part of my civilian work at Clavister we contribute to make technical solutions for interoperability secure and reliable. Already today we deliver cybersecurity solutions for military platforms to multiple NATO nations and we will keep doing all we can to contribute to the alliance strong cybersecurity posture. #nato #cybersecurity

Military think tank - 'Foundation for Defence of Democracies' - urges U.S. Congress to create a 'United States Cyber Force.' I have often wondered why we never created a cyber branch of the military, especially after the creation of the U.S. Space Force. But, then again, we never created more that a Special Operations Command. https://lnkd.in/g2AuFvnF "In the U.S. military, an officer who had never fired a rifle would never command an infantry unit. Yet officers with no experience behind a keyboard are commanding cyber warfare units. This mismatch stems from the U.S. military’s failure to recruit, train, promote, and retain talented cyber warriors. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines each run their own recruitment, training, and promotion systems instead of having a single pipeline for talent. The result is a shortage of qualified personnel at U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), which has responsibility for both the offensive and defensive aspects of military cyber operations." #cybersecurity

This March Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) report has apparently gained traction, as the US Congress is now considering the establishment of a Cyber Force as the 6th armed service, following the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force. https://lnkd.in/gYuih7WS The current posture suffers from a variety of issues. #Talent is scarce, of course, but it hasn't been managed well. More broadly, there are deep concerns about workplace #culture. The existing management model doesn't transfer well into cyberspace. “Under no circumstances would a cyber officer be asked to lead a squadron of aircraft," says one Marine Corps captain, "and yet the opposite is often true.” Reading about the challenges in an undisputed world-class #cyberpower, I have even less patience for the occasional assertion that #Taiwan can't spend more of its GDP on defense because of a US weapons backlog. Any money it spent in this manner would create lasting benefits which would tend to stay inside the country.