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<h1>Pentagon creating teams to launch cyberattacks as threat grows</h1>
<h3>
By <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ellen-nakashima/2011/03/02/ABdt4sM_page.html" rel="author">Ellen Nakashima</a>, <span class="">Published: March 12</span>
</h3>
<p>The Pentagon’s Cyber Command <a href="http://tinyurl.com/bgbh6b3">will create 13 offensive teams by the fall of 2015</a>
to help defend the nation against major computer attacks from abroad,
Gen. Keith Alexander testified to Congress on Tuesday, a rare
acknowledgment of the military’s ability to use cyberweapons.</p>
<p>The new teams are part of a broader government effort to shield the
nation from destructive attacks over the Internet that could harm Wall
Street or knock out electric power, for instance.</p><p>But Alexander
warned that budget cuts will undermine the effort to build up these
forces even as foreign threats to the nation’s critical computer systems
intensify. And he urged Congress to pass legislation to enable the
private sector to share computer threat data with the government without
fear of being sued.</p><p>As he moves into his eighth year as director
of the National Security Agency and his third year as head of the
fledgling Cyber Command, Alexander told the Senate Armed Services
Committee that the strategic-threat picture is worsening. “We’ve seen
the attacks on Wall Street over the last six months grow significantly,”
he said, noting there were more than 160 disruptive attacks on banks in
that period. </p><p>Describing an attack on Saudi Arabia’s national oil
company, he said: “Last summer, in August, we saw a destructive attack
on Saudi Aramco, where the data on over 30,000 systems were destroyed.
And if you look at industry, especially the anti-virus community and
others, they believe it’s going to grow more in 2013. And there’s a lot
that we need to do to prepare for this.”</p><p>The U.S. intelligence community has indicated that the assaults on the banks and Saudi Aramco <a href="http://wapo.st/UyTfTc">were the work of Iran</a> in retaliation for U.S. financial sanctions imposed to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons program.</p>
<p>Alexander’s
remarks came as U.S. intelligence officials elsewhere on Capitol Hill
testified about the growing cyberthreat. At a national security threat
hearing, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. called
on <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-publicly-calls-on-china-to-stop-commercial-cyber-espionage-theft-of-trade-secrets/2013/03/11/28b21d12-8a82-11e2-a051-6810d606108d_story.html">China to stop its “cyber-stealing”</a> of corporate secrets from U.S. networks.
</p><p>Alexander said the 13 teams would defend against destructive attacks. “I would like to be clear that this team <span>. . .</span> is an offensive team,” he said. </p><p>Twenty-seven
other teams would support commands such as the Pacific Command and the
Central Command as they plan offensive cyber capabilities. Separate
teams would focus on protecting the Defense Department’s computer
networks. He said the first third of the forces, which officials have
said will total several thousand civilians and uniformed personnel, will
be in place by September and the second third a year later. </p><p>Some teams are already in place, Alexander said, to focus on “the most serious threats,” which he did not identify.</p><p>But
he said uncertainty about the budget is affecting the ability to fill
out the teams. About 25 percent of the Cyber Command’s budget is being
held up by congressional wrangling over the fiscal 2013 budget, he said.
And across-the-board cuts that took effect March 1 are forcing
civilian furloughs. “By singling out the civilian workforce, we’ve done a
great disservice,” said Alexander, noting that one-third of the command
workforce is made up of Air Force civilians.</p><p>He said some
cybersecurity recruits have taken a salary cut to work for the
government, only to be faced with a furlough. “That’s the wrong message
to send people we want to stay in the military acting in these career
fields.” </p><p>The attacks <a href="http://tinyurl.com/a2r73v3">hitting the banks are “distributed denial of service attacks</a>”
— or barrages of network traffic against Web site servers — that are
best handled by the Internet service providers, he said. The issue is
“when does a nuisance become a real problem” that forces the government
to act, he said. The administration is debating that now, he said.</p><p>To
detect major attacks on industry, the department needs to see them
coming in real time, Alexander said. The Internet service providers are
best positioned to provide that visibility, but they lack the authority
to share attack data with the government, he said. In particular, he
said, the companies need legal protection against lawsuits for sharing
the data. </p><p>
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