Cybersecurity

Pentagon Unprepared To Repel Cyber Attacks

In the event of a catastrophic cyber attack on civilian infrastructure, the US military’s Cyber Command is one of the first and major lines of defence. However, the Pentagon won’t be able to test its ability to respond to such an event at least until 2019.

Mid-June, Cyber Command completed its Cyber Guard exercise. The drill gathered 800 representatives from various US agencies – including FBI, Justice Department, Homeland Security, and more – to practice repelling a major cyber attack on US infrastructure. On the whole, the exercise was a success, except for one minor snag: it didn’t even come close to emulating a full scale attack against the US.

“We don’t have the scale or the complexity to truly represent a realistic and relevant threat, the ones that we’re truly trying to train to,” Brig Gen Charles L. Moore Jr, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s deputy director for global operations, said in a hearing at the House of Representatives.