Last week I spent an afternoon at the War College speaking to a class of officer-level students in one of their cyber training programs. I have had the good fortune of doing similar events for the past seven years, but this time it was different.
This group was the most engaged I have ever seen. They not only recognized the immediacy of the cyber issues that face the country and world, they had a solid understanding of the speed with which this environment is changing, the complexity of this challenge as it relates to our current efforts and, most importantly, they recognized the need to change the way we are addressing this national security issue.
The most impressive aspect of their mental model of the cyber threat was the need to fully integrate creativity and innovation into the offensive and defensive solutions that our country takes. While many (including myself) see this as running contrary to the rigid, process and procedure driven military model that is in place today, they seem to have struck a balance between abandoning that model and moving to a new model versus opening up the model to creative and innovative mindsets that are now accompanying the strategies for global cyber offensive and defensive issues.
Perhaps this is because most of the officers attending the program had computer technology available to them as they grew up and attended school. Or perhaps it is because their analysis of the current cyber threat models has indicated this is not an option. Whatever the reason, this shows a giant step forward as we move to adapt to and address the ever growing threat in the global cyber threat environment.
