Pentagon's cybercommand plans stall

The Pentagon is finding out that even the best cybersecurity plans get hung up over bureaucracy and congressional worries about issues such as privacy. That's the case with Department of Defense's plan to set up a command to defend its global network of computer systems. Congress is questioning its mission and possible privacy issues. As a result, the Oct. 1, 2009 target launch date was delayed, and there's no date for a confirmation hearing for the command's first director.

It's another hurdle in the long road toward getting an essential idea off the ground, according to experts who have been charting the course of the Pentagon's cybercommand initiative. The idea is an effort to consolidate existing offensive and defensive capabilities under one roof and involves no new authorities or broadening of mission.

But there are policy issues that still must be resolved, including: How far can the Pentagon go to defend its own networks? And what kind of relationship will the command have to the National Security Agency?

"I don't think there's any dispute about the need for Cyber Command," Paul B. Kurtz, a cybersecurity expert who served in the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations., told the Washington Post. "We need to do better defending DOD networks and more clearly think through what we're going to do offensively in cyberspace. But the question is how does that all mesh with existing organizations and authorities? The devil really is in the details."

A better cybersecurity operation is at the front-and-center of the Obama administration's plans to deal with the growing cyberwarfare threat The plan also calls for strengthening "intelligence sensing," or the blocking of malicious software and codes entering military networks, officials said.

"Our goal here is to better protect our forces," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert J. Butler said. "If someone can intrude inside the network, it could impair our ability to communicate and operate."

For more on this story:
- see this Washington Post article

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