Interview with air force Maj. Gen. William T. Lord AFCYBER commander

CHIPS, July-Sept, 2008

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Maj. Gen. William T. Lord is commander, Air Force Cyberspace Command (Provisional). He is responsible for establishing cyberspace as a domain in and through which the Air Force flies and fights, to deliver sovereign options for defense of the United States. AFCYBER signals the beginning of equipping and organizing a new breed of warrior, that being Air Force cyber warriors, to dominate the cyber domain. One of the key enablers to fully standing up AFCYBER will be the staff's ability to leverage and enhance the existing command and control concepts of operations and capabilities of other Air Force major commands and Defense Department services and agencies. The planned date for phase one of the AFCYBER stand up is Oct. 1, 2008.

AFCYBER (Provisional) was activated Sept. 17, 2007, at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. The need is urgent, so in 2003, the White House issued "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," part of an overall effort to protect the nation against cyber threats. The strategy presents cyberspace security as a subset of homeland security and defines a wide range of initiatives to "protect against the debilitating disruption of the operation of information systems for critical infrastructures and, thereby, help to protect the people, economy, and national security of the United States."

One of those initiatives calls for the government to "improve coordination for responding to cyber attacks within the U.S. national security community." According to "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," "a spectrum of malicious actors can and do conduct attacks against our critical information infrastructures. Of primary concern is the threat of organized cyber attacks capable of causing debilitating disruption to our Nation's critical infrastructures, economy, or national security."

In this regard, AFCYBER will act as both a deterrent and a combatant to safeguard the nation's cyber structure.

Gen. Lord and his staff are working many of the items needed for initial operations capability including: establishing a budget, articulating details of organizational realignments, developing and assigning manpower requirements, and establishing policies and procedures for daily operations. Many of these details are either still being defined or are under review.

CHIPS spoke with Maj. Gen. Lord May 5, 2008.

CHIPS: When the Secretary of the Air Force announced the stand up of the Cyberspace Command in 2005; many saw it as a bold move into new ground. Do you think that AFCYBER will serve as a blue print to other defense and federal organizations in regard to offensive, tactical use of the cyber domain?

Maj. Gen. Lord: I hope we can be a blueprint for other defense and federal organizations as a virtual organization. We can show other elements of government how we can operate from about a dozen different locations--a major air command headquarters and a couple hundred people with four wings assigned to us all over the United States--and not have laid one brick for any brick and mortar construction.

I think that could be a great example. We have talked to Naval Network Warfare Command and the Army's NETCOM because they have been established longer than we have. CHIPS: Will you be working with the Army and Navy?

Maj. Gen. Lord: At the operational level, there is not a huge overlap, but we all provide forces for U.S. Strategic Command. Our work with other services has been more administrative than operational, to date.

CHIPS: I read that AFCYBER is going to be more of a tactical command, taking on the offensive approach to network operations.

Maj. Gen. Lord: The work of an AF MAJCOM is the organizing, training and equipping of forces ... not tactical operations. As the operator of the AF portion of the network, I believe the majority of that work is in the defensive business. One of the reasons that the Air Force decided to stand up this capability is because of the Air Force's dependence on technology in command and control of our own forces.

If you are flying a Predator from Las Vegas over Afghanistan, that is a thin command and control link. We want to make sure that we are not just assuming that it will always be there but have the ability to defend it.

Offensive capabilities, that is force employment, belongs to combatant commanders. We, as the Air Force, don't do that; we give forces to U.S. Strategic Command for employment. Principally, we're an 'organize, train and equip' command. We will be educating those young people to be able to do both (offensive and defensive), but in the employment mode, they don't belong to us.

CHIPS: There is speculation in the trade press that the Air Force stood up AFCYBER to prepare for cyber conflicts with China, given that many attacks against U.S. government networks come from the Chinese mainland.

Maj. Gen. Lord: I have read the same stories, but I don't believe that they are completely correct. It is really about the Air Force's dependence on cyber and our ability to defend our own command and control, so that we can continue to operate in the joint fight as the COCOM wishes.