Yes, indeed, the power and influence of this blog has reached to the very highest circles of American military strategic planning, to be precise, up as far as Gen. Keith Alexander, the retiring head of Cyber Command and also the outgoing director of the National Security Agency. According to the Washington Free Beacon:
The U.S. military is ill-prepared for waging cyber warfare and needs to bolster defenses against the growing threat of cyber attacks against both military systems and private infrastructure, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command told Congress on Thursday.
I have been banging on recently about how necessary it is to shrink our traditional armed services and get rid of three in four of our 'top brass' who, apart from being mostly useless are also an expensive dead weight to carry! With the savings we need to form 'Her Majesty's Royal Corps of Cyber Swots'. It's no good trying to teach them drill, or even giving them uniforms, let alone - God help us all! - giving them rifles! No, just bring them in, mostly as reservists in their spare time, and give them all the money and kit they need to work out how to defend this country against a major cyber attack which in nano-seconds could reduce our society to chaos. As US Gen. Alexander puts it:
Cyber Command, currently staffed by 1,100 people, is making progress in all areas, said Alexander, who retires next month. However, he warned that cyber threats are increasing, shifting from temporarily disruptive attacks, to extremely damaging cyber strikes that can destroy data and machines, and potentially threaten the U.S. economy and endanger American lives.
[...]
[Adm. Cecil D. Haney, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command] said plans call for creating 133 “cyber mission teams” staffed by over 6,000 people by the end of 2016. So far 17 teams are deployed in a variety of missions within combatant commands and at Cyber Command headquarters at Fort Meade, Md.
If the Americans are that far behind, only 17 out of 133 teams formed, then we are probably out of sight altogether and I have nil confidence in the average British army brigadier or major-general having any conception of the complexities involved, although I suspect there are some very bright people at GCHQ who do. They should be involved and help form the first military teams.
In exactly the same way that we desperately needed Spitfires and Hurricanes in 1939, we now need cyber nerds!
