US Cyber Command is extending its protective protocols beyond the “dot mil” domains to the networks of some defense companies, according to US Strategic Command’s commander, Gen. Robert Kehler. A pilot program is under way to extend CYBERCOM protection to “parts of the industrial base,” Kehler told defense reporters Tuesday in Washington, D.C. “We are seeing some good success” with the effort and it will be “extended for a period of time,” he said. CYBERCOM is a sub-unified command aligned under STRATCOM.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.