Online outpost

Are you reading this? I mean, do you understand the implication of this plan, if it pushes through? Or maybe it is already launched, and they are just letting us know. Pentagon can be so secretive…as my cousin always say, they won't show out their weapons of war if they don't have the next higher version of that artillery… and oh, so true! I say it goes for anything when it comes to the military…their 'killing field' is now online…

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Pentagon plans new unit run by 'cyberczar'

THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.

Administration officials said the military command would complement a civilian effort to be announced by President Barack Obama on Friday that would overhaul the way the United States safeguards its computer networks.

Mr Obama, officials said, will announce the creation of a White House office — run by a "cyberczar" and reporting to both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council — that will coordinate a multi-billion-dollar effort to restrict access to government computers and protect systems that run the stock exchanges, clear global banking transactions and manage the air traffic control system.

White House officials say Mr Obama has not yet been formally presented with the Pentagon plan.

They said he would not discuss it on Friday when he announced the creation of a White House office responsible for coordinating private-sector and government defences against the thousands of cyber attacks mounted against the United States — largely by hackers but sometimes by foreign governments — every day.

The decision to create a cyber command is a major step beyond the actions taken by the Bush administration, which never resolved the question of how the government would prepare for a new era of warfare fought over digital networks.

But Mr Obama is expected to give the go ahead for the creation of the military cyber command, officials said.

A classified set of presidential directives is also expected to lay out the military's new responsibilities and how it coordinates its mission with that of the National Security Agency, where most of the expertise on digital warfare resides today.

The White House has never said whether Mr Obama embraces the idea that the United States should use cyber weapons.

The public announcement on Friday focused solely on defensive steps and the government's acknowledgment that it needs to be better organised to face the threat from foes attacking military, government and commercial online systems.

From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.

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