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Balancing social networking and cybersecurity

Air Force Space Command tweets. The same command charged with protecting the Air Force’s computer network has 3,855 followers on Twitter.

How to keep sensitive information safe and still reach out to the public is but one of the complexities that Gen. Robert Kehler, head of Space Command, is trying to figure out.

This summer, Space Command activated the service’s newest numbered Air Force — 24th Air Force — to take on the cyberspace domain. U.S. Cyber Command, a new unified effort ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, stands up Oct. 1.

Kehler talked to Air Force Times about these new units and everything else cyber — from Facebook to training — Sept. 16 at the Air Force Association Air & Space Conference at National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington.

Q: How vulnerable is the Air Force to a cyber attack?

A: Some things are well-protected in cyberspace, but many things are not. When you get into the places that it touches the public domain, many things are not protected. We are looking at cyberspace these days as if it was a densely crowded urban area. Not everything is an attack with a capital “A.” There are criminals in cyberspace. There are spies in cyberspace. There are determined nation-states in cyberspace conducting their nation-state business. The difficulty here is protecting yourself from all those problems you could encounter the same as if you tried to physically protect a military base. ... So, our focus is not on protecting cyberspace as much as it is assuring our missions. It isn’t about trying to defend every node on the network for us. It’s about trying to make sure we can complete our missions in the face of attack. ... The 13-year-old down the street can be just as damaging to you as the determined enemy that is trying to disrupt your national security activities.

Q: What is the Air Force’s stance on allowing airmen on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter?

A: The extreme answer to protecting yourself is disconnect. But wait, that’s like saying I have an Air Force, but they can only fly when the weather is good or you can only fly in an uncontested domain. Well, that is crazy, that isn’t why the Air Force exists. The Air Force exists to fly, fight and win. So, my initial thinking here is that we have to come up with ways to exploit the power of these networks while protecting the mission. Easy to say, difficult to do. …. I don’t know what that means yet in terms of do we prohibit or ban.

Q: What has changed since the standup of 24th Air Force?

A: The No. 1 thing I have seen has been focus. ... I have seen us now focus on how we intend to present our capabilities to the other joint war fighters. I have seen us focus on the details of how we are supposed to train; what our tasks are going to be; how do we train to suit those tasks; what our capabilities are; and what our future capabilities might have to be.

Q: What priorities and benchmarks do you have for 24th Air Force this year?

A: First, we need to get our arms around the Air Force network, understand it and do what we can to ensure our missions on that network. The second thing we need to do is make sure we are the best possible joint partners. U.S. Cyber Command is going to stand up and look at their components, and I want us to be ready for Cyber Command to look at us and say, “we need you.”

Q: What do airmen working in the cyberspace mission actually do?

A: There is now a joint definition for cyberspace and cyberspace operations. We are using both of those inside the Air Force. Cyberspace is the collection of things that comprise what the Department of Defense would call the global information grid. Cyberspace operations, and this will sound simplistic, are the activities you perform in this domain. ... To operate the network, to defend the network, to exploit information that is on the network and, if we are directed, to conduct offensive operations. ... So, it is really those things that will comprise the activities that we expect to see our folks performing in cyberspace. ... Initially, we really want to focus on defense and protection. In addition to that, because of some of the capabilities that we have put in 24th Air Force, we also say airmen are constructing access to cyberspace. Combat communications, for example. If they go out and set up communications someplace, that is constructing entry into the domain.

Q: How do you grow a cyberspace expert in the Air Force?

A: In cyberspace there is really going to be a combination of expertise. In the enlisted force, we are still going to require enlisted members who are well-schooled in the technical details in what we today call the communications disciplines. We need enlisted people who can fix radars, radios and set up satellite communication links. In addition, though, there is another career path here. Certainly, as we look for people to enter the enlisted ranks, there are going to be some specialists here who are so important to us because of their academic backgrounds and their experience levels that there will be some unique aspects of what we are going to have to train people to do. We expect that the overall training and education process will follow the standard Air Force model. For enlisted, there will be basic training followed by tech school. We think that cyber-related training goes all the way back to basic training, not just tech school.

For officers, we see a very similar process to how we train pilots or space operators. ... Bring them in for undergraduate training and then send them off to initial qualification training. There will probably be multiple career pathways. ... There will be some that will be more focused on network activities and network defense and some of the emerging skills. Some of those people will require different educational backgrounds. We will, very likely, recruit.

Q: How does an entity as big as the Air Force keep up with the rapidly changing technology?

A: We have put some acquisition programs in place over the years for IT-related things. It allows us to keep up and refresh with commercial off-the-shelf things. …. We are working, though, through what is the best way for us to be able to have a dedicated group that goes out and keeps up with acquisition and what level that should be. We are working with Materiel Command right now. Do we allow the local units at that level to make some decisions with acquisition or do we keep all of that at Materiel Command? Do we have a special group do this? We are trying to figure out how to make this work. ... Buying computers, we have purchasing power for that. ... The real question is software, how to defend software when it’s happening. That’s where we are going to have to partner with industry and the Department of Defense and our other services and other agencies. ... There will have to be oversight for this, and we know that.

Q How big can cyberspace grow in the Air Force? Is there a ceiling?

A: If every organization involved with cyberspace was a ping-pong ball, there is a lot of room in the box for those ping-pong balls. The question then becomes: How big is our ping-pong ball? How big does it get? The answer partially depends on what this new joint structure wants us to do. We, like the rest of the services, want to bring unique capabilities. We don’t want to be duplicative of what the other services are doing. Just like every service is in the air, we are all doing our own mission set in the air. It is going to be the same thing in cyber.