US Air Force puts Cyber Command into hibernate mode

US Air Force puts Cyber Command into hibernate mode

arstechnica.com

The Air Force Cyber Command (AFCYBER) is a provisional unit that was being developed to take on the challenge of finding ways to use and safeguard Internet infrastructure during military conflicts. AFCYBER was announced in 2006 and the unit, after some delays, was expected to stand up in October of this year. That launch has now been put on hold while the Air Force's new leadership reviews the plans. Some analysts speculate that the program may be embroiled in a dispute over which branch of the military should have authority over cyberspace.

(visit the link for the full news article)

As usual the conflict between the execution of counterintelligence operations tug-of-war elevates itself to the policy-maker level. The Air Force has the technology and the experience to perform this function, but there's money to be had, so the fight goes on.

Interestingly, reading further into the article:

There is also evidence that major world powers, particularly China and Russia, have already experimented with techniques for using hacking and denial of service attacks as offensive weapons. China was accused of orchestrating a chain of five separate attacks last year and hackers in Russia have been accused of using technology against Estonia and Georgia. It remains unclear whether these attacks were conducted with government backing.

- (Emphasis mine)

Does anyone still wonder why Georgian authorities had to resort to bloggers to send out their version of events?

arstechnica.com
(visit the link for the full news article)