US Air Force sets up Cyber Command

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Air Force established a provisional Cyber Command Tuesday as part of an expanding mission to prepare for wars in cyberspace, officials said.

The move comes amid concerns over a wave of hacker attacks originating in China against western governments and a crippling attack in May against Estonia amid a dispute with Russia.

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne announced the creation of the new command at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where the air force's existing cyber warfare operations are centered.

Officials said the provisional command will pave the way within a year for the creation of the air force's first major command devoted to cyberwarfare operations.

The full Air Force Cyber Command "will train and equip forces to conduct sustained global operations in and through cyberspace, fully integrated with air and space operations," said Major General Charles Ickes.

The US 8th Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale, will continue to conduct day-to-day cyber operations until the Cyber Command is fully operational, officials said.

Skilled hackers can exploit weaknesses in computer networks to steal or change information, cripple them with viruses or overwhelm them with masses of data.

The mass attacks on Estonia in May shut down government websites, banks, schools and other institutions.

The US military has recognized the potential for cyberwarfare at least since the late-1990s when officials acknowledge launching offensive electronic attacks against Yugoslavia during a NATO air war over Kosovo.

But it has expanded its efforts in recent years as rivals like China have stepped up their efforts, and while Al-Qaeda has exploited the Internet to recruit followers and plot attacks.

"We've got to contest the virtual space," retired general John Abizaid, the former US commander in the Middle East, said Monday. "In the Napoleonic era, war was land and sea."

"Today we have to operate, not only land, sea, air and space, but we have to understand that the virtual domain is a domain of war that requires our constant attention and vigilance and it's not just an area to be watched."

"It's an area in which to fight," he said at a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

A US military report on China's military power earlier this year said the Peoples Liberation Army began incorporating computer network operations in its exercises in 2005, "primarily in first strikes against enemy networks."

"The PLA sees CNO (computer network operations) as critical to achieving 'electromagnetic dominance' early in a conflict," the report said.

The air force in 2005, meanwhile, declared military operations in cyberspace a fundamental mission, putting it on a par with operations in air and space and setting in motion plans for the new command.

"This step simply recognized the existing fact that significant air force personnel and technology have long been engaged in fighting in cyberspace," Wynne said in a speech in November 2006.

 

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AFP: US Air Force sets up Cyber Command

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