U.S. Navy Launches ‘Task Force Cyber Awakening’ to Protect Us From the Internet of Things

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

https://betabeat.com/2014/11/u-s-navy-launches-task-force-cyber-awakening-to-protect-us-from-the-internet-of-things/

In our excitement over the prospect that our refrigerators will soon be
able to order milk for us as soon as they know we’ve run out, we often
forget about the darker side of the Internet of Things. Embedded systems
promise convenience, but they can be hacked like any other computer, and
though it sounds bad if someone can hack into and control our home
appliances, consider that the Internet of Things also extends to our guided
missiles and military command tech.

In response to possible cyber threats, the U.S. Navy has launched Task
Force Cyber Awakening (TFCA), a team that will perform a sweeping audit of
the Navy and determine how they can protect themselves from future cyber
attacks.

“Recent real world events and attacks on our Navy systems make clear that
the cyber threat is increasing,” The Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval
Operations for Information Dominance, an agency that needs a renaming from
the TFCA team, wrote in the Navy’s own IT publication. “Our current
approach, which prioritizes modernization over sustainment, leaves us
vulnerable.”

To translate, our military has been racing to make our military tech fresh
and modern without making sure it’s actually stable against digital
infiltration. Put another way, it’s easy to build a tall tower when you
have no regard for how stable it is toward the base.

TFCA is an initiative from the ever-growing Information Dominance Corp,
another department with a badass name that serves as an umbrella group with
wide-reaching ability to oversee the Navy’s cyber warfare operations — an
organization that is trying to grow to face what it considers the greatest
threat to American security.

“We will have arrived [at our goal for cyber security] when we have our
internal audience, the Information Dominance Corps, thinking of themselves
as warfighters,” Vice Admiral Ted Branchtold Federal News Radio in
February. “And probably more importantly, when the rest of the guys, the
kinetic guys, the trigger-pullers start thinking of the information
dominance corps as warfighters, we’ll get there.”

Hopefully, they’ll earn that respect before we suffer our first first fatal
cyber attack, rather than after.

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