The Pentagon Defines Its Role in Cybersecurity

The U.S. military's fight against hackers

(CHIP SOMODEVILLA/Getty Images)

The seals of the U.S. Cyber Command, the National Security Agency and the Central Security Service greet employees and visitors at the campus the three organizations share in Fort Meade, Md.

The U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Strategy, a report released April 23, highlights the government's efforts thus far in realizing its role in cyberspace since the publication of its first formal strategy in 2011. The United States already has clearly demonstrated its technological edge in conducting espionage and sabotage online, as with the Stuxnet attack against Iranian centrifuges in 2008. However, the U.S. military's capabilities in the potential war-fighting domain of cyberspace do not equal its land, sea and air dominance. The Pentagon's cyber strategy focuses on this reality as much as it does on further incorporating cyberspace capabilities into its military structure. While the Department of Defense recognizes cyberspace as an operational domain, it also recognizes that it must share this domain to safeguard U.S. interests.