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Cyber Capability Test Philosophy

I am fortunate enough to lead the 90th Cyberspace Operations Squadron, a unit that delivers software to enable cyberspace operations for combatant commands and the military services. Testing is a vital part of delivering software successfully, but there are many philosophies around how to do so. Our needs around testing are somewhat unique. This post describes how we need to shape our thinking for the future. Today Today we are in a fortunate position regarding test.…

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Ten Dimensions of Cyber Threat

Dr. Kamal Jabbour and Dr. Erich Devendorf have characterized the cyber threat the DoD faces. They describe threats as having these ten characteristics:

  • Highly educated on the science of information assurance
  • Doctrinally trained on the art of cyber warfare
  • Adequately resourced in talent, time, and treasure
  • Thoroughly briefed on target missions and systems
  • Mathematically specialized in architectural properties
  • Superiorly skilled in byzantine failure analysis
  • Intricately involved in protocol specification and analysis
  • Critically embedded in the supply chain
  • Strategically postured in command and control
  • Conveniently situated for access and persistence

The paper uses these points to demonstrate how an adversary thinks about attacking our systems. However, I see a lot of ways in which these should coerce the DoD to make serious changes in how we build and maintain our cyber professional workforce.

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The Cyber Sim

This is a fictional imagining of what could be. Dear Journal, I took a refreshing break from my staff job today to keep up my “mission qualification”, and it really re-centered me. Sim time is something only pilots used to talk about, but the new “cyber sim” concept has brought that idea into the info ops world. Stupid name, great concept. I took my laptop out to the local library and sat in a back room one of the squadrons borrows regularly.…

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