Evolving Cybersecurity Drives Intelligence and Defense Organizational Changes

Cyber-centric organizations in the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense (DOD) are combining functions and commands in response to the growing interconnections among cybersecurity, information warfare and ISR functions and the need to provide both offensive and defensive operations.

The National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Defense (DOD) and military services branches continue to grow and adapt their organizations to the evolving threats and challenges of defending cyberspace and the realities of competition between powers great and small that operates below the level of armed conflict. Some noteworthy examples include:

• NSA Cybersecurity Directorate – In October the National Security Agency launched a new division aimed at unifying efforts in protecting the country’s intelligence and defense apparatus against foreign cyber threats. The new organization unifies NSA’s foreign intelligence and cyber defense missions to prevent and eradicate threats to national security and weapons systems and the defense industrial base. Its goals are to bring speed, agility, and unity of effort and provide actionable threat intelligence at the unclassified level so that government, industry and academic partners can benefit in real-time. A new $520 million, 380K square foot state-of-the-art Integrated Cyber Center facility at Fort Meade houses up to 1,400 personnel from NSA and USCYBERCOM, the defense contracting community and other defense and intelligence agencies.
• New Numbered Air Force – The Air Force is standing up the 16th Air Force as a new information warfare command to lead its cyber, global ISR and electronic warfare efforts. It will be led by Maj. Gen. Timothy Haugh, who will be the Air Force’s representative to the U.S. Cyber Command and will lead the Joint Force Headquarters Cyber Air Force. The move reflects the coalescence of cyber operations, ISR and network defense capabilities.
• Rebranding Army Cyber Command – The Army is changing the name of its Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER) to the Army Information Warfare Command to better reflect its growing mission where staff are increasingly operating below the level of armed conflict. Led by Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, the change aligns with Army’s Multi-Domain Operations doctrine by integrating and employing intelligence, information operations, cyber, electronic warfare and space capabilities.
• Elevated, Expanded Navy CIO – To address issues from the Navy’s recent cybersecurity readiness review, the DON has appointed a new CIO and special assistant to the Secretary for Information Management, Aaron Weis. In the elevated position that goes beyond the portfolio of previous DON CIOs, Weis will oversee four new directorates: chief data officer, chief information security officer, chief technology officer, and chief digital and innovation officer. The office will have authorities to approve budgets and enforce policies and standards.

These and other organizational and operational changes reflect the US national security community’s efforts to evolve and position itself to perform a broad range of operations within the rapidly morphing cyberspace domain. The mission scope and operational capabilities of DOD’s CYBERCOM and NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate will continue to mature and integrate across the national security and defense domains. While the dual-hatted leadership of the NSA and CYBERCOM continues to be a topic of debate, the leadership framework remains intact for now.

For more of our perspective on these and other aspects of the federal cybersecurity market see Deltek’s report Federal Information Security Market, FY 2019-2024, which examines the trends and drivers shaping the federal information security marketplace and provides a forecast for the next five years.