The National Guard’s role in cybersecurity began in 1999 thanks to the uncertainty created by Y2K.
With concerns of potential computer chaos looming when dates on systems turned over to 2000, the National Guard was given a new force structure called a computer network defense team. Renamed Defensive Cyber Operations Elements, the eight-to 10-person teams are organized on the state level, while support for the 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency regions is handled by Cyber Protection Teams, Lt. Col. Brad Rhodes, the commander of the Colorado National Guard's Cyber Protection Team 178, said in an interview with GCN.
The Guard wants to grow its DCOEs to at least 2,800 personnel by 2019, according to Jack Harrison, a spokesperson for Department of Defense's National Guard Bureau. The Guard has some kind of cybersecurity operation in all 50 states and four U.S. territories, Harrison said in an email. And last year, the Army and Air Force National Guard expanded their cyber units into more states.
The role of the Guard when it comes to cybersecurity has a couple of different pieces, according to Rhodes. The Guard protects its piece of the Department of Defense’s information network known as Guard-Net. But Guard members also have sworn an oath to respond to disasters when called upon by the governor in their state. This has not happened much for cybersecurity situations, Rhodes said.
“If you have to deploy the National Guard that’s a big deal, and governors tend to not want to do that,” said Herbert Lin, a senior research scholar for cyber policy at Stanford University and member of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity
But Rhodes said there were incidents, like cyberattacks Flint in Mich., earlier this year that resulted in the Guard being called upon. Virginia has used its National Guard’s cybersecurity capabilities to look at localities’ vulnerabilites.
But Rhodes said there were incidents, like cyberattacks Flint in Mich., earlier this year that resulted in the Guard being called upon. Virginia has used its National Guard’s cybersecurity capabilities to look at localities’ vulnerabilites.
Source@GCN
