Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 | Page 79
CYBERSECURITY
explores integrating such precedents for host-nation
cybersecurity during U.S. Army stability operations.
Defining Cyberspace
In defining cyberspace, security experts Peter Singer
and Allan Friedman keep it simple: “At its essence, cyberspace is the realm of computer networks (and the users behind them) in which information is stored, shared,
and communicated online.”1 Similarly, the U.S. military
defines cyberspace as “the global domain within the
information environment consisting of the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures
and resident data, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded
processors and controllers.”2 Over the next thirty years,
the Army anticipates conflicts will grow more complex
as adversaries leverage advanced technologies, including
those that take the fight into the cyber domain.3
For America’s homeland defense, the U.S. military has invested in cyber capabilities “to protect vital
networks and infrastructure.”4 The Pentagon focuses
cybersecurity efforts toward protecting military systems.5 Current military cyberspace doctrine emphasizes
securing the military’s own information systems to
ensure freedom of maneuver.6
The Army, Cyberspace, and Stability
Operations
Current doctrine inadequately addresses the cyberspace imperatives for stability operations. And, since
even the world’s poorest countries are now reliant on
cyberspace—the most likely areas in which U.S. military
operations will be conducted with coalition partners in
the future—U.S. military doctrine must consider ways in
which cyberspace simultaneously influences all lines of
effort during stability operations.
America expects its military to train for and execute stability operations regardless of today’s uncertain
information environment. Stability operations involve
“various military missions, tasks, and activities conducted outside the United States in coordination with other
instruments of national power to maintain or reestablish
a safe and secure environment, provide essential governmental services, emergency infrastructure reconstruction, and humanitarian relief.”7 Notably, all joint operations rely on cyberspace, which enables the joint force to
integrate operations across the land, air, maritime, and
MILITARY REVIEW March-April 2016
space domains.8 Consequently, the Army must also train
to potentially achieve essential cybersecurity for a host
nation during stability operations.
Mobile Wireless Networks: Examples
of an Essential Service Reliant on
Cyberspace
One manifestation of cyberspace is civilian mobile
wireless networks. Recent crises have proven that such
mobile networks are indispensable for responders. For
example, during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, the Sierra
Leone government used text messages to transmit public
health messages.9 Mobile data sharing was also essential
in recovery efforts after the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti
and Chile.10 And, after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal,
mobile networks enabled lifesaving communication between relief workers and local citizens. With phone lines
overwhelmed, Nepalese survivors relied on the Internet
to share information.11
Mobile networks again proved indispensabl