17 October 2024

Army Battalions Don’t Have Organic Cyber Intelligence Capabilities—Here’s Why They Should

Jacob Scheidemann

Would you send a unit to war without adequate, organic protection from the threats it’s most likely to face? On its surface, the answer seems obvious. But when it comes to cyber threats, every Army battalion is effectively in this situation, reliant on external defenses, with little visibility on how or when these defenses are employed to protect it.

The US military represents a target-rich environment for evolving cyber threat actors intent on, for instance, extracting sensitive personally identifiable information, standard operating procedures, deployment plans, and technological data. A majority of cyber assets, however, operate from within the confines of higher-echelon units, removed from the kinetic happenings of battle. While this organization is effective in centralizing cybersecurity for operational and strategic prevention and response purposes, current Department of Defense structure leaves tactical-level units like Army battalions vulnerable to the tactical effects of cyber warfare. Remedying this vulnerability requires creative organizational solutions, developed and implemented before such efforts are too late. One simple idea? Push cyber expertise down to this level.


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