Cardon, commander of U.S. Army Cyber Command, testified on a panel during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities, "Military Cyber Programs and Posture," hearing, April 14, 2015.
Two months after China perpetrated one of the largest breaches of federal data in American history, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Cyber Command on Tuesday proposed a new military in which all operations "converge" to strengthen the nation's digital defenses.
Speaking before a crowd of 750 people at TechNet Augusta's third annual military conference, Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon laid the groundwork for a new Army that's concentrated on stopping "hybrid warfare," a type of cyberattack in which a single person can destroy an entire city's infrastructure with a laptop.
Under Cardon's vision, Signal Corps officers would manage communications systems, public affairs staff would oversee information operations and develop social media applications, and military intelligence units would collect and record top-secret data for the Army Cyber Command.
He said the new effort would unify the Army's cyber security efforts and better protect agencies, such as the Office of Personnel Management, which in June reported that China hacked its database and stole Social Security numbers and other personal information of more than 20 million federal workers.
"As far as we have come over the past decade, I still think we are near the beginning of what is truly possible," Cardon said of the Army Cyber Command, now based at Fort Gordon. "However, the window to accomplishing our potential in a proactive manner is closing."
The breach recently perpetrated by China was the third major foreign intrusion into an important federal computer system in the past year.
In 2014, the White House and the U.S. State Department found that some of President Obama's unclassified e-mails were apparently obtained during an attack attributed to Russian hackers.
Last summer, the personnel office announced an intrusion in which hackers, possibly in China, appeared to have targeted the files of workers who applied for top-secret security clearances to identify undercover agents, scientists and others with data of great interest to foreign governments.
Since cyber command was established in 2010, Cardon said, the Army has struggled to define ways it can use the information environment to enhance its operations. The goal, he said, has increased in significance, with the command expected to bring 4,700 cyber defense workers to the area by 2019.
"This is not a unique Army problem," Cardon said of the federal government. "It is a joint problem and I would argue even a national security issue."
Cardon urged defense contractors in attendance to think differently, especially since America's competitors and adversaries worldwide have adapted, using the digital realm to offset U.S. operational dominance in the field.
"Whether it is the Russians in the Ukraine, ISIS in the Middle East, North Koreans here in our own country or China in the South China Sea, our adversaries are merging information capabilities to achieve operational and even strategic effects," he said. "The question is: Can we adapt? Do we have the will to intellectually converge?"
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