Air Force and the Cyberspace Mission

A little over year ago, in November 2005, the Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley wrote a joint letter to all airmen of the Air Force. The letter defined a new mission statement which also included the concept of cyberspace. The secretary and chief defined cyberspace as including network security, data transmission and the sharing of information. It would be useful to look at how United States adversaries plan to engage us in the cyber domain as the Air Force moves toward this new frontier. This paper begins by suggesting potential areas an adversary may infiltrate cyberspace. It also includes a scenario describing China's cyberspace strategy. A brief historical look at computers, followed by a visit to today's systems, and then more importantly, an examination of future vulnerability of computer systems used throughout the Air Force is also included. A snapshot of current computer vulnerabilities within the Air Force, to include the operating systems, software and network/internet connectivity is also discussed in this paper. Although the Air Force and the Department of Defense (DOD) in general, have numerous safeguards in effect to protect systems and their networks, the DOD relies on a system that is passive when encountering cyber threats. This paper offers recommendations to consider, in the future, as the Air Force increasingly becomes reliant on computers, software, and the networks they reside on. Additionally, the time needed to develop and deploy effective defenses in cyberspace is much longer than the time required for an adversary to mount an attack. This paper concludes with an assessment that there is a valid and urgent need to begin steps today to defend the Air Force computer systems as well as to proactively protect and dominate the cyberspace domain of the future.