Major Cyber Security Moves Announced

摘要

The Air Force on May 15 announced that Lackland AFB, Tex., is its preferred location to host 24th Air Force, the new numbered air force that will focus on the service's cyberspace mission. The final decision was pending completion of an environmental impact analysis.rnThe new NAF, which has operated provisionally at Barksdale AFB, La., will fall under Air Force Space Command, headquartered at Peterson AFB, Colo.The NAF is expected to add about 7,000 personnel positions to AFSPC.rnLackland beat out the other five finalist sites: Barksdale, Langley AFB, Va., Offutt AFB, Neb., Peterson, and Scott AFB, III.rnTwo weeks later, on May 29, President Obama, noting that the security of the nation's cyber networks is one of the most serious challenges that the US faces and that the nation is not properly prepared, declared that the nation's digital infrastructure will henceforth be treated as "a strategic national asset."rn"Protecting this infrastructure will be a national security priority," he said in a White House address.rnTo oversee these efforts at the national level, Obama announced the creation of a new cyber security coordinator office within the White House. This coordinator will orchestrate and integrate the government's cyber security-related policy, work to ensure that budgets reflect the policy, and coordinate the government response in the event of a major cyber attack, he said.rnMeanwhile, US Strategic Command is mulling the creation of a new subcommand within its organization that would combine the military's cyber defense and cyber attack missions under one roof, yielding important synergies, Air Force Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, STRATCOM commander, said May 7.rnEssentially, STRATCOM is looking at combining the functions of its joint task for global network operations and its joint functional component command for network warfare under a single commander, Chilton told reporters in Washington, D.C.