Analysts: US Should Create Digital Warfare Task Force

Speaking at a hearing in front of the House Armed Services subcommittee, the leader of the Pentagon's new Cyber Command, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, who is also the head of the US National Security Agency (NSA), said that the country needed to build up a digital warfare task force as soon as possible, in order to counteract the growing threats on its national security. In addition, the official added, the nation also needed to drastically reorganize its offensive and defensive cyber-capabilities, in order to be able to both withstand and support a long-term assault.

Over the past few years, a number of hacker attacks on the Pentagon, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Energy (DOE), as well as on a number of public and private corporations, had highlighted the weakness of America's cyber-defenses, Alexander implied. He also mentioned that the level of preparedness and of training that existing cyber-warfare forces had was insufficient, and that further equipment was also needed, if the US was to have a fighting chance against hackers from countries such as China, Russia and Romania, who constantly got past the most sophisticated firewalls and safety measures.

The NSA leader also emphasized the fact that more than $100 million had been spent on repairing damages done by cyber-attacks in the last six months alone, and that the total amount of money that had been lost in this type of attacks was still unknown. The recently created Cyber Command, which will be based at Fort Meade, in Maryland, will be part of the US Strategic Command, and will work in tight cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Currently, Pentagon officials estimate that the new structure will become operational by 2010.

The most recent hearing, the BBC reports, is but part of a wider effort initiated by President Barack Obama, to thoroughly assess the state of the nation's cyber-security. Thus far, things haven't been looking very good, investigators pinpoint, as evidenced by last week's report from the National Research Council, which said that the basic principles of the US cyber-defense policy were “ill-formed, lack adequate oversight and require a broad public debate.”