Who’s in Charge When US Suffers A Cyberattack?

One of the Pentagon’s key missions is to lend a hand—or a drone—during natural disasters or other domestic emergencies. But it is unclear, in the event of a massive data breach, which element of the Defense Department is in charge of military support, according to Congress’ watchdog agency.

In other words: When there is an Ebola virus epidemic, for example, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs steps in to help the civilian government. But it’s not clear what military official should organize forces when there is, for instance, a hospital computer virus unleashed by Iran.

US Northern Command says it is the main Pentagon support arm that fends off foreign hackers in the United States, a position at odds with policies and some top brass who say Cyber Command plays the lead in addressing stateside cyberthreats from abroad when asked.

Joseph W. Kirschbaum, Government Accountability Office director for defense capabilities and management, warned that until the Pentagon “clarifies the roles and responsibilities of its components,” the military “may not be positioned to effectively employ its forces and capabilities to support civil authorities in a cyber incident.”

In recent years, CYBERCOM and National Security Agency resources have been deployed to deal with privacy breaches at the Office of Personnel Management perpetrated by Chinese hackers, as well as a destructive attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment allegedly orchestrated by North Korea.
 
“DOD officials stated that the department had not yet determined the approach it would take to support a civil authority in a cyber incident and, as of January 2016, DOD had not begun efforts to issue or update guidance and did not have an estimate on when the guidance will be finalized,” Kirschbaum said.

The Pentagon is required by law to develop a plan by next month for CYBERCOM to support civil authorities in the event of a nation-state cyber strike.

But a NORTHCOM concept plan, which is already Defense secretary-approved, states its commander would coordinate a civilian mission that “may include cyber domain incidents or activities — with other DOD components supporting in conducting the missions,” Kirschbaum said in an audit made public recently.

At the same time, other guidance directs Cyber Command to be responsible for supporting civil authorities during a cyber incident, the report noted.

Specifically, Robert Salesses, a deputy assistant secretary for homeland defense integration, testified in June 2015 CYBERCOM would oversee cyber incident troubleshooting. Likewise, a 2010 formal agreement between DOD and Homeland Security Department names CYBERCOM as the Pentagon component that would respond to a civilian network disaster.
 
For its part, Cyber Command says the Defense secretary likely would call on CYBERCOM, not NORTHCOM, to provide help during a civilian cyber emergency.

Northern Command told a different story. As of September 2015, NORTHCOM officials said, “Their command had not delegated this responsibility to another command.”

Meanwhile, Pacific Command officials told GAO it would take center stage responding to a cyber incident within its area of responsibility with CYBERCOM playing a supporting role, Kirschbaum said. The reasons for the discrepancies in roles and duties are due to the recent emergence of the Cyberthreat, according to the report.

NORTHCOM officials said Defense so far has never received a request for assistance from DHS or any lead federal agency for military support, under a civil authority, for a cyber incident. An official within the office of the deputy assistant secretary for cyber policy said the military “expects to receive more requests to support civil authorities in cyber incidents and acknowledged the need to clarify roles and responsibilities in advance of any requests given the growing focus on cybersecurity,” the audit states.

In reaction to a draft audit, the Pentagon on March 14 said it will spell out the officials and components that will aid, as needed, in the event of a U.S. cyber episode.

Defense will release or update guidelines “that clarify DOD roles and responsibilities regarding civil support for domestic cyber incidents,” said a response sent by Aaron Hughes, deputy assistant secretary for cyber policy.

DefenseOne: http://bit.ly/1Wn5umb

« FBI Says A Mysterious Hacking Group Has Had Access To US Government Networks For Years
Boardroom: Elevating Cybersecurity Discussions »

CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

ON-DEMAND WEBINAR: What Is A Next-Generation Firewall (and why does it matter)?

ON-DEMAND WEBINAR: What Is A Next-Generation Firewall (and why does it matter)?

Watch this webinar to hear security experts from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SANS break down the myths and realities of what an NGFW is, how to use one, and what it can do for your security posture.

Authentic8

Authentic8

Authentic8 transforms how organizations secure and control the use of the web with Silo, its patented cloud browser.

ZenGRC

ZenGRC

ZenGRC - the first, easy-to-use, enterprise-grade information security solution for compliance and risk management - offers businesses efficient control tracking, testing, and enforcement.

Alvacomm

Alvacomm

Alvacomm offers holistic VIP cybersecurity services, providing comprehensive protection against cyber threats. Our solutions include risk assessment, threat detection, incident response.

Cyber Security Supplier Directory

Cyber Security Supplier Directory

Our Supplier Directory lists 6,000+ specialist cyber security service providers in 128 countries worldwide. IS YOUR ORGANISATION LISTED?

CloudEndure

CloudEndure

CloudEndure offers Disaster Recovery and Continuous Replication for the Cloud.

Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS)

Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS)

The Cyber Centre is the single unified source of expert advice, guidance, services and support on cyber security for government, critical infrastructure, the private sector and the public.

Cyber Data-Risk Managers

Cyber Data-Risk Managers

Cyber Data-Risk Managers Pty Ltd is an insurance broker based in Melbourne, Australia specializing in Cyber insurance / Data breach insurance.

Niagara Networks

Niagara Networks

Niagara Networks is a Network Visibility industry leader, with emphasis in 1/10/40/100 Gigabit systems and mission-critical IT and security appliances.

Rogue Wave Software

Rogue Wave Software

At Rogue Wave, our mission is to simplify your hardest problems, improve software quality and security, and shorten the time it takes to deliver value.

Neupart

Neupart

Neupart provides Information Security Management System, Secure ISMS, allowing organisations to automate IT Governance, Risk and Compliance management.

CyBOK - University of Bristol

CyBOK - University of Bristol

CyBOK is a comprehensive Body of Knowledge to inform and underpin education and professional training for the cyber security sector.

Crypto Quantique

Crypto Quantique

Crypto Quantique's ground-breaking technology radically simplifies the process of generating a hardware root of trust in an IoT device.

Cyber Security & Cloud Expo

Cyber Security & Cloud Expo

The Cyber Security & Cloud Expo is an international event series in London, Amsterdam and Silicon Valley.

Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm, synchronizing strategy and talent to drive superior performance for our clients in key areas including cybersecurity.

Cira Info Tech

Cira Info Tech

Cira InfoTech’s cyber security and network consulting and managed services deliver unmatched talented resources and capabilities required to design and build an agile and adaptive IT environment.

Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI)

Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI)

At the Cyber Readiness Institute, our mission is simple: empower small and medium-sized enterprises with free tools and resources to help them become more secure and resilient.

SecureStream Technologies

SecureStream Technologies

SecureStream Technologies have built the IoT SafetyNet - the Network Security Analytics platform to Eliminate Security Threats, Guarantee Privacy, Ensure Compliance, Simply & Easily.

HarfangLab

HarfangLab

HarfangLab develops a hunting software to boost detection and neutralization of cyberattacks against companies endpoints.

Winmill Software

Winmill Software

Winmill is a technology services company that provides expert consulting services in Application Development, Application Security and Cyber Security.

Tarlogic

Tarlogic

Tarlogic works to protect and defend your security with the highest quality technical team with next generation solutions to achieve the best protection.