A Mission Assurance Strategy Built for 2020 (and Beyond)

osobystist/Shutterstock.com

Our connected reality presents massive challenges to military and commercial entities working to safeguard networks from growing threats.

Ten years ago, the lion's share of America’s cyber threats were narrowly aimed at penetrating government software perimeters. Consequently, the U.S. government responded by introducing targeted security measures focused on protecting IT and networks. Today, cyber threats are inherently connected to the physical homeland—rendering critical digital and physical assets powering everyday American lives vulnerable. More devices, applications, vehicles, wearable devices and people go online every day in the United States and around the world. Our connected reality presents massive challenges to military and commercial entities working to safeguard networks from diverse, emerging and growing threats to information and physical security.

It’s important to note that mission assurance (an umbrella term for protecting all physical assets critical to performing U.S. missions globally), national resilience, critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity figure prominently throughout the current administration’s 2017 National Security Strategy. Likewise, the Defense Department’s 2018 National Defense Strategy stresses the changing character of warfare and an evermore lethal and disruptive battlefield that reaches all the way back to the homeland on a daily basis. The forward-looking documents also suggest that technological advancement and the sheer speed of operations—especially cyber operations—needed to mitigate risks that require more adaptive and innovative strategies.

In practice, the world’s new security environment calls for government leaders to:

  • Work with senior leadership across defense, intelligence, national security and government agencies to develop coordinated mission assurance plans. All efforts must be built to respond to asymmetric threats to digital and physical infrastructure. Senior government leaders must focus efforts on protecting domestic energy grids piping directly into American homes, international weapon systems protecting the U.S. interests here and abroad and global telecommunications networks connecting people and systems around the world from evolving threats.
  • Focus mission assurance plans on resilience and preparedness to keep digital and physical assets working before, during and after attacks in any form. In short, it’s complicated. In reality, strategic plans to mitigate wide-ranging risks to American assets must be inclusive, comprehensive and tailored to specific situations.
  • Optimize mission assurance plans for interoperability between agencies, departments and private sector partners working to protect the homeland—and American assets in partner countries. The Defense Department has been working tirelessly with partners to assess evolving threats to homeland security and U.S. assets around the world. Their multifaceted goal: to determine how to prevent attacks, keep missions running during unpreventable attacks, protect American interests in harm’s way and inform potentially impacted communities.
  • Develop staff training programs and risk-oriented surveys for officials at every level that raise awareness of the expansion of national security threats into the real world. Develop surveys and other resources of information that clearly outline evolving risk profiles of a world connected by smart devices and wifi, specific critical digital and physical infrastructure vulnerabilities and targeted mission assurance protocols. People are crucial to America’s homeland security and the prevention of attacks on assets in the field. Government officials from every agency and department need to be aware of the associated risks, response processes and gravity of mission assurance to overall national security.

Modern attacks from state and non-state actors bombard military, government and civilian assets in search of pathways to data, system operations and connected physical infrastructure. In response, the Defense Department, in partnership with agencies spanning America’s public sector, need to intensify their efforts to evolve and adapt efforts to ensure mission assurance persists. They need to expediently craft a coordinated mission assurance strategy that keeps physical and digital assets under constant threat of attack safe, operational and resilient. The security of our country, our people and, frankly, the world depends on it.

Randy James is a senior vice president at ICF, where he leads the global firm’s cybersecurity and resilience practice.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.