Senior cyber officials across the Defense Department are moving forward with creating central oversight of the military’s computer networks now that US Cyber Command has commenced initial operations. “We have lots of decisions to make in the cyber domain,” said Vice Adm. Carl Mauney, deputy commander of US Strategic Command. CYBERCOM is a sub-unified command under STRATCOM. He said one issue is clear” “We need to be prepared for our networks to continue to operate in the face of a computer network attack. It’s not about hunkering down behind a firewall.” Maj. Gen. Paul Capasso, USAF’s director of network services, said the services still face “unchartered territory when comes to cyber law, cyber policy, and cyber doctrine.” For example, he noted, there is still no single “agreed-upon definition of cyber warfare.” But he said progress is being made on all these fronts. (AFPS report by Lisa Daniel)
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.