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The Army is the only service that didn't create a separate
military occupational specialty for offensive and defensive cyber,
said Maj. Gen. Stephen Fogarty.
"We think we made the right
call because both inform the other," he said. "Most defenders come
from the signal side, most offensive come from the military
intelligence side."
As the transition is made to the new
Cyber Branch, that integration will become apparent, he added.
Fogarty, commander, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and
Fort Gordon, Georgia, spoke July 14, 2016 at the "Network Readiness
in a Complex World" panel hosted by the Association of the United
States Army.
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Maj. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, commander, U.S. Army Cyber Center of
Excellence and Fort Gordon, Georgia, speaks, July 14, 2016 at the
"Network Readiness in a Complex World" panel hosted by the
Association of the United States Army at AUSA headquarters in
Arlington, Va. (U.S. Army photo by David Vergun)
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Besides signal and MI, electronic warfare "will be linked
inextricably to cyber," Fogarty said.
"That [newly
integrated] force will provide EW and cyber planners at
brigade combat team, division and corps levels," he
continued. "It will provide the actual operators for
offensive electronic attack capabilities. We're the only
service that's added EW to the mix."
Cyber training for officers is now underway and the first
enlisted cyber course at Fort Gordon will begin in February,
he noted.
DEVELOPING CYBER WORKFORCE
Karl
Schneider, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army,
Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said the nature of the cyber
workforce may soon change in a big way.
Congress, the
administration and the Office of the Secretary of Defense
have been in discussions to change the authorities of cyber.
Currently, the cyber workforce falls under Title 5, he said.
The plan is for the cyber workforce to be shifted to Title
10, "excepted service," he said.
"Excepted service
means it's easier to hire people, it's easier to pay people,
and it's easier to get rid of people who aren't working out.
It is a much more flexible system," Schneider said.
On June 24, OSD transmitted its plan to Congress, he said.
OSD is waiting to get the green light.
The switch to
Title 10 "will be a phased approach, starting with a small
number of people at headquarters and then expanded out," he
said." It will set up a governance process. There will be a
cyber workforce management board that will have
decision-making authority on how to run this workforce, with
representation from various entities," including OSD and
representatives from all of the services.
The policy
model that's being studied for this transition is the
Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System, which
already falls under Title 10, he said. "The intelligence
community has done a good job at managing their people
outside of the normal Title 5 process. They're particularly
interested in looking at how NSA manages its technological
workforce, with flexibility in pay setting, supplemental pay
to attract cyber and STEM people.
"It will take a
while to field this new excepted service for the cyber
workforce," he continued. In the meantime, "they want us to
be more aggressive in using the authorities we already have
under Title 5."
Those authorities under Title 5
include direct hire of people, setting entry salaries at
higher step levels for civilians and other incentives like
student loan repayments, he said.
A PARALLEL APPROACH
Besides the plan to switch cyber to a Title 10
authority, a new joint memorandum, "Federal Cybersecurity
Workforce Strategy," was signed July 12, by the directors of
Office of Personnel Management, the Office of Management and
Budget, and the federal chief information officer, Schneider
said.
The memo makes it easier for people in signals
intelligence and military intelligence to become cyber
professionals "without starting from scratch," since they
already come equipped with a lot of the knowledge and skills
necessary to integrate into cyber operations, he said.
Another impetus from the memo is to send recruiters to
universities and other hot spots, looking for potential
cyber civilian recruits, he said. "You can't get quality by
just putting up announcements on USAJobs. You've got to go
out and find them."
Besides pay and benefits, cyber
talent is attracted when they know they'll be doing "cool
stuff," he added.
Schneider likened cyber to the
Manhattan Project, which was developed during World War II
to build the atomic bomb. Cyber too is "truly a national
endeavor," and it's just started.
Fogarty added that
"cyber is the Army's most important power-projection
platform."
The weapon is the network, Fogarty said.
Without information dominance, aircraft can't fly, ships
don't sail and ground forces don't maneuver on the
battlefield.
By U.S. Army David Vergun, DMA
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2016
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