Air Force and the Cyberspace Mission

<p>A little over year ago in November 2005 the Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley wrote a joint letter to all airmen of the Air Force. The letter defined a new mission statement which also included the concept of cyberspace. The secretary and chief defined cyberspace as including network security data transmission and the sharing of information. It would be useful to look at how United States adversaries plan to engage us in the cyber domain as the Air Force moves toward this new frontier. This paper begins by suggesting potential areas an adversary may infiltrate cyberspace. It also includes a scenario describing China's cyberspace strategy. A brief historical look at computers followed by a visit to today's systems and then more importantly an examination of future vulnerability of computer systems used throughout the Air Force is also included. A snapshot of current computer vulnerabilities within the Air Force to include the operating systems software and network/internet connectivity is also discussed in this paper. Although the Air Force and the Department of Defense (DOD) in general have numerous safeguards in effect to protect systems and their networks the DOD relies on a system that is passive when encountering cyber threats. This paper offers recommendations to consider in the future as the Air Force increasingly becomes reliant on computers software and the networks they reside on. Additionally the time needed to develop and deploy effective defenses in cyberspace is much longer than the time required for an adversary to mount an attack. This paper concludes with an assessment that there is a valid and urgent need to begin steps today to defend the Air Force computer systems as well as to proactively protect and dominate the cyberspace domain of the future.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>