The Rise of the Cyber Warriors
By
Bob Brewin
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates today proposed slashing funding for big-ticket weapons systems in the 2010 Defense budget, including the Air Force's F-22 fighter, next-generation cruisers and vehicles used in the Army's Future Combat Systems program. But he backed training for cadres of cyber warriors.
"To improve cyberspace capabilities, we will increase the number of cyber experts this department can train from 80 students per year to 250 per year by FY11," Gates said. Apparently, he thinks Defense needs firewalls for protection against nefarious data packets, and not an armored vehicle designed to protect against live ammo fired by bad guys.
More on the cyber warfront may be revealed tomorrow, when Air Force General Kevin Chilton, head of Defense's leading cyber command, the U.S Strategic Command, holds a press briefing at the command's Cyber Space Symposium in Omaha.
I plan to be a virtual attendee of that briefing, because I'm in freezing Chicago, where I'm covering the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference.