753 ELSG Commander offers cyber update, insights

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AFB, Mass. --  Just as no one leaves for work in the morning expecting to get in a traffic accident, people never really expect to be victimized by cyber attack, Col. Leslie Blackham told an industry gathering March 6. 

Speaking to the Hanscom Representatives Association at Hanscom's Minuteman Club, the 753 Electronic Systems Group commander cautioned against such presumed security. 

"We tend to think that we'll be okay, but that won't always be the case," she said.
The colonel said that the emerging cyber domain carries both risks and opportunities. The Air Force cyber challenge, boiled down to its most essential elements, is to make the most of the opportunities while minimizing the risks. 

The Air Force effort to achieve cyber dominance will unfold in two basic phases, she said. First, the service must control and protect its cyber operations. Then it can concentrate on connecting cyber operations with kinetic ones, fully exploiting the potential of both. 

Colonel Blackham, whose group has been informally labeled "the cyber front porch," has been charged with spearheading materiel acquisition for the Air Force's emerging Cyber Command, which was stood up provisionally in 2007. That command will reach initial operational capability in October and full operational capability by October 2009. 

However, its work is under way right now, the colonel said, as are the Electronic Systems Center's efforts in support of its mission.

ESC's responsibilities fall into three general categories: enabling global expeditionary cyber operations; providing network security; and developing active cyber defenses. 

"There's not a single briefing that I've seen from academicians or from some of the really far-reaching IT folks that say firewalls are sufficient," she said. 

Systems, such as the Cyber Control System that her group is now working to procure, must be able to detect patterns and give operators near-real-time information about any suspected network disturbances. They must also enable rapid, automated, protective and corrective actions. 

She also stressed that current policy can't prevent the Air Force from "investigating possibilities" for acquiring the sorts of capability that will likely be needed. "But we are going to have to line up, over time, policy with what we buy and how we operate." 

Chief among the challenges the colonel and her staff face is the need to react quickly to changing needs, despite being locked into the standard two-year budget cycle. This need for speed also requires some acquisition agility, Colonel Blackham said, noting that traditional purchasing processes may have to be tailored to unique cyber needs and arising circumstances. 

The solutions, she said, might have to be just as creative as the acquisition approach.
"What we might need to do in cyber acquisition is build a platform upon which a warrior will do real-time software modifications in response to an emerging threat," she said. 

The colonel also reminded attendees that the next Air Force Cyber Symposium will be held near ESC headquarters, in Marlborough, Mass., June 17 through 19, adding that Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne had just signed on to the growing list of high-level speakers.