Joint Interagency Coordination Group - Cyber: Empowering the Combatant Commanders against the no-borders threat

Abstract

The worldwide proliferation of technology and increased ease of access to the Internet are facilitating cyber threats from a wide range of sources. From recreational hackers to organized terrorist organizations and legitimate nation states, the threats in cyberspace continue to increase and the points of origin are becoming more difficult to pin-point. The cyber attacks on Estonia and Georgia in 2007 and 2008, respectively, prove that cyberspace is a legitimate warfighting domain. Informed by these attacks, the 2009 Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review report identified cyberspace as one of four focus areas for the Department of Defense (DoD), and the armed services are moving quickly to address cyber personnel, training, equipment, and command and control issues. Currently, U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRACOM) is the department's "cyber command" and is responsible for operating, maintaining, protecting and monitoring the Global Information Grid (GIG) and, through the Defense Information Systems Agency's (DISA) Joint Task Force - Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO), exercises assured system and network availability, information protection, and information delivery for the DoD. At the operational level, DISA supports the Geographic Combatant Commanders (CCDRs) with remote field offices within each of their headquarters and Theater Network Operations Centers (TNCs) are collocated within most of the COCOM J6 organizations. Despite these support agencies, the CCDR does not have cyber resources at his immediate discretion as USSTRATCOM retains operational control of all units. In order to effectively address threats in the cyber domain, Geographic Combatant Commanders should establish a Joint Interagency Coordination Group - Cyber (JIACG-C) empowered to leverage joint, interagency, and civilian agency resources to support the commander's objectives.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 04, 2009
Accession Number
ADA503033

Entities

People

  • Osvaldo Ortiz

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combatant Commanders
  • Command And Control
  • Computer Networks
  • Cyberattacks
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cyberspace
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Cyberterrorism
  • Homeland Security
  • Information Systems
  • Interagency Coordination
  • National Security
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States Northern Command
  • United States Strategic Command
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control