Cyber Command war fighters, not just geeks

Washington Post:

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The recently launched Cyber Command is much larger, with about 1,000 personnel, and with authority not only to defend, but to attack adversaries. It will leverage the abilities of the National Security Agency to penetrate foreign networks and spy on targets.

But one thing remains constant, the veterans say: In the world of defending military networks, it takes fighters - not merely techies - to do the job.

"It was supposed to be a war fighter unit, not a geek unit," said task force veteran Jason Healey, who had served as an Air Force signals intelligence officer.

A fighter would understand, for instance, if an enemy had penetrated the networks and changed coordinates or target times, said Dusty Rhoads, a retired Air Force colonel and former F-117 pilot who recruited the original task force members. "A techie wouldn't have a clue," he said.

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I have to give credit for the most creative name to Dusty Rhoads, but also worthy of mention is retired Gen. John "Soup" Campbell, the task force's first commander.

They have an important mission. They need to get inside the enemy's OODA loop and stay a step ahead of him by stopping his cyber attacks and initiating our own attacks.