Threatened Pentagon programs will play up cyber roles, experts predict

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20120208_5377.php

By Aliya Sternstein
Nextgov
02/08/2012

Military program managers whose operations are vaguely associated with 
computer networks could reposition their programs as being critical to 
cybersecurity to tap into one of the few untouched defense accounts and 
boost their own funding odds, some budget experts predict.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in January rewrote the nation's military 
strategy to, in part, increase spending on cyberspace operations and cut 
back on ground troops. Panetta repeatedly has said "the next Pearl 
Harbor" could be a cyberattack that turns off electricity, financial 
transactions and government services. At a defense funding briefing, 
researchers from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments said 
they expect U.S. forces will have difficulty determining how much to 
spend on cyberspace and what exactly to spend it on because of the 
amorphous nature of the domain.

The challenge is reminiscent of the emergence of the Global Information 
Grid, or GIG, last decade, when military officials struggled to 
determine which activities supporting the U.S. warfighting data network 
should be considered part of the program, said Todd Harrison, a budget 
studies analyst at the center.

"Basically anything connected to any network was all part of the GIG," 
including the power and water infrastructure, "so a toilet overflowing 
somewhere can affect the GIG," he said.

[...]


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