Ask the Air Force Cyber Command General About War in Cyberspace

We ran an article about the new Air Force Cyber Command and its recruiting efforts on February 13, 2008. Now Major General William Lord, who is in charge of this effort, has agreed to answer Slashdot users' questions. If you're thinking about joining up -- or just curious -- this is a golden opportunity to learn how our military is changing its command structure and recruiting efforts to deal with "cyberspace as a warfighting domain." Usual Slashdot interview rules apply.

As A Military Commander...

[Wandering Wombat]

Does it ever wear you down that you have to look at anything and everything in the world as a potential tool or locale for warfare?

How do we prevent "mission creep"

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

It appears that the military is increasingly involved in areas who's jurisdiction was once considered to be wholly in the civil domain. Use of jargon like "cyberspace" seems only to obfuscate and distract from the core issue. This appears an effort to recruit public opinion and defuse the deeper questions that strike at the heart of a free and civil society. I think that if we had a statement that "The private mails are a warfighting domain" would generate a fair amount of debate on the role of the military as opposed to the police, the function of constitutional protection of liberties, and the question of what actually constitutes a state of war.

What are the limits on this jurisdiction? Who enforces these limits, and how is the public informed of that status? How are efforts to extend being safeguarded from creating mission creep that threatens all civil discourse in the United States and abroad form targeting, suppression, propaganda and extra-legal surbeillance?

USAF Mining Data Useage Patterns to Find Thoughtcr

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

If shutting down access [slashdot.org] to blogs isn't enough to create resentment, the Air Force is "developing data mining technology [cnet.com] meant to root out disaffected insiders based on their e-mail activity--or lack thereof." With "Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing" [spacewar.com] a graph is constructed of social network interactions from an organization's e-mail traffic "If a worker suddenly stops socializing online, abruptly shifts alliances within the organization, or starts developing an unhealthy interest in "sensitive topics," the system detects it and alerts investigators."

It is good war is so terrible...

[MozeeToby]

I wise man once said "It is good that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it". If cyberwarfare ever becomes a reality, how do we respond to the fact that is isn't "terrible"?

The direct damage from such warfare would be primarily economic or data security related (rather than a cost in human lives) how do you feel we can prevent it from becoming a monthly, yearly, or daily occurance?

Re:As A Military Commander...

[ScentCone]

looking at things like the internet, which is inherently nonviolent, as a place for warfare

You probably got moddded down because your choice of language suggests a certain naivete.

The internet is nothing until someone uses it. Just like a roadside bomb, a watering can, a butterknife. Since it's pointless to talk about it unless you talk about how it's used, then what you're really talking about are the people that use it, and how they use it. To say that it's inherently non-violent is to say that the people who use it are. Which is demonstrably false. And before someone mentions the non-violence of ones and zeros, please remember that much of warfare (including heading it off before someone tries to start one) is communications, awareness, readiness, and the health of your government, industry and other large systems... all of which now depend on the network. War is about controlling, or denying other people the use of the things that allow them to have power or influence over others - and a mammoth, globe-spanning communications system is now forever going to be a central venue for things very much related to violence. It already is.

more political than military re: MFN/trade status

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do we still confer most-favored nation trading status onto a Nation who is actively engaged in efforts to spy on and attack our government and corporate computer systems?

That's more a political question than a military one (and is a loaded formulation; not that I really disagree with your implied bias both for the reasons you list and their horrifying human rights record). The answer is as simple as it is disgusting, I'm afraid. American business interests desire access to the Chinese market as a source for cheap labor/products to produce goods for the American market (and to a lesser extent as a market for our services, but frankly we're too expensive in most cases to be competitive). Those business interests ensure via campaign contributions and lobbying that the political class here maintains the status quo. Sell out human decency and your country for a dollar? To you or I, of course not, but to the right kind of person? Of course. These same types were behind the '30s anti-FDR Nazi-sympathetic coup that nearly happened.

My question is:

[drspliff]

I have no doubt that when stockpiling security researchers and analysts, much as Google do and other companies do, will result in lots of creative projects and ideas regardless of what the military's goals are; however, are these going to be returned to Americans, educational institutions and the international community?

Or will it be another case of knowledge hoarding with no return to the tax payers who funded it?

Re:Physical Fitness

[Notquitecajun]

As a corollary, if you CAN'T meet the above requirements, and it takes you more than a month to get there, and you're not too old or disabled...

You have fitness issues that need correcting. Period.

Re:Skynet?

[AnomaliesAndrew]

I saw a recruitment commercial today for this very thing on CNN before work. It said that they ward off over 5 million malicious attacks a day at the Pentagon.

My question is... how many military professionals are actually doing any of this work? From what I've heard, all they do is babysit computer screens and private contractors making 4x their pay. If that's the case, sign me up! (as a contractor.)

Re:relaxing rules

[mother_reincarnated]

I think he was asking if someone highly qualified but gay could be a civilian contractor... But if you still want to respond with "drop and give me twenty"...

And if the GP wasn't, then I am- First my ground assumptions:
This is an entirely different battlefield with entirely different physical constraints and requirements.
The particular KSAs involved tend to be found in persons that had some degree of social isolation.
Hard-core 'cyber' geeks tend towards fat, scrawny, gay, lesbian, blind in one eye, flat footed, or some combination of the above.

Would you agree that the intentions behind the policies excluding such people from serving in the armed forces do not apply [as strongly to / to] the Cyber Command? Would you be willing to look at creative means to be more inclusive of the community that you wish to recruit from?

flexibility

[Eil]

General Lord,

I served proudly as an active duty member of the United States Air Force for 4 years and then in the Reserves for another 4 years. Although the Air Force is generally regarded as the most "modern" of the U.S. military branches, I still found that the overall structure was too rigid to take me where I wanted to go, so I followed my inner geek and moved fully into the civilian sector.

You said, 'We have to change the way we think about warriors of the future.' At first, I guessed that you would hire these individuals into government contractor positions, but the Wired article implies otherwise. Many of the brightest security experts, by nature, are highly independent and have a noted distaste for many of the standards that being in the Air Force require, such as basic training, dress and appearance, and physical fitness. How far will the Cyber Command bend the traditional standards in order to persuade the best and brightest in the security field to sign up into a military career?