Cybersecurity

Here's how the US military is beating hackers at their own game

In its cyber strategy, the military proposed 133 teams for its "cyber mission force" by 2018, 27 of which were directed to support combat missions by "generating integrated cyberspace effects in support of ... operations." (Effects is a common military term used for artillery and aircraft targeting, and soldiers proclaim "good effect on target" to communicate a direct hit).

The cyber mission force will comprise some 4,300 personnel. But only about 1,600 of those would be on a "combat mission team" that would likely be considered to be taking an offensive hacking role. They are up against China's own "specialized military network warfare forces," North Korea's secretive Bureau 121 hacker unit, other nation-states, hacktivists like Anonymous, and criminal enterprises alike.

They have been further tasked with breaking into the networks of adversaries like ISIS, disrupting communications channels, stopping improvised explosive devices from being triggered through cellphones, or even, as one Marine general put it, just "trying to get inside the enemy's [head]."