{"id":31440,"date":"2018-08-09T14:30:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T14:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/09\/and-after-the-space-force-a-subterranean-force\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:12:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:12:55","slug":"and-after-the-space-force-a-subterranean-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2018\/08\/09\/and-after-the-space-force-a-subterranean-force\/","title":{"rendered":"And after the Space Force, a Subterranean Force?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Donald Trump recently directed the Department of Defense to \u201cestablish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces\u201d marking not only a major milestone in U.S. military history but also a significant shift in the way U.S. threats are perceived. Given that, might there be a seventh force directed in the near future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many credit technological advances as a primary driver for the surge in recent cyberattacks, but multiple factors are at play. Despite medical advances and overall population stabilization, the past 100 years of human activity has created a new domain that is susceptible to devastating cyberattacks: the subterranean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldometers.info\/world-population\/\">world population boom between 1900-2000<\/a> saw many advances, but it also required significant industrial and metropolitan development, ultimately resulting in the birth of the megacity \u2013 a metropolitan area with a total population exceeding 10 million. Today, there are nearly 40 megacities worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why are megacities a problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Megacities offer a lot of benefits \u2013 proximity and public transportation among them \u2013 but with more people comes a lot of congestion. This is why the London Underground was introduced as the world\u2019s first metro system in 1890. Today, there are more than 30 metro systems in the U.S.; worldwide, there are roughly 150.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From the perspective of critical infrastructure, subterranean transit represents a significant target for adversaries \u2013 and sets the stage for a hybrid physical-cyber attack. Gaining control of a single city\u2019s metro controls could result in catastrophic physical events \u2013 limiting the ability of riders to get to their destinations, limiting the number of employees who physically show up for work, disrupting everyday transactions \u2013 from buying groceries and gas to securing financial transactions on Wall Street. The Butterfly Effect may seem extreme, but with more than 4.3 million daily riders on the NY subway alone \u2013a little imagination is all that\u2019s required to start to understand the ripple effect of a single, geographic outage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How are megacities vulnerable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The subterranean is a \u201ccomplex\u201d operating environment that presents unique monitoring and communications challenges. While there have been some efforts to bring in new, automated technology, adoption has been slow. D.C. metro authorities seem bent on <a href=\"https:\/\/wamu.org\/story\/17\/06\/09\/metro-defends-decision-run-trains-manually-despite-inefficiencies-worker-stress\/\">running trains manually<\/a> and New York has been criticized for its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpa.org\/article\/slow-adoption-of-modern-technology-hampers-new-york-city-subway\">slow adoption<\/a> of communications-based train control (CBTC). Ironically, most metro riders use the latest technology available \u2013 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled IoT devices \u2013 that can be compromised. Hypothetically, a malicious actor could hack a rider\u2019s device and gain access to the controls of the entire metro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How should we defend the subterranean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the U.S. military has substantial experience with urban combat from recent engagements, that experience has been mostly limited to terrestrial engagements. The subterranean threat is new, and we\u2019re approaching a great power competition that will close the gap between the contested spaces of air, land, sea, ground, space, and cyber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The key to defending the underground will be the same key as defending any other space: have the upper hand, and make proactive cyber decisions before you have to make reactive cyber resolutions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Trend and pattern recognition: <\/b>This can offer a significant advantage in the cyber arena. Detecting and studying the patterns of our adversaries before they attack will be crucial \u2013 where are they going to school, what are they studying, what is their economic status, what political changes are occurring, what ports are they using and buying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Adaptation:<\/b> Just as we developed walkie-talkies and the first atom bomb in the 1940s, just as we enabled GPS capabilities for the world with the DoD\u2019s development of GPS and satellite technology in the 1990s, and just as the United States has developed advanced robotics to assist soldiers on the battlefield in 2010, the United States will adapt to the demands of subterranean warfare. Data is the quintessential element in the adaption equation; it\u2019s critical that the U.S. absorb as much megacity data as possible to baseline and analyze the aforementioned trends and patterns and develop predictive models for future vulnerabilities and attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Speed: <\/b>Advances in technology have enabled rapid decision making in the commercial space \u2013 from choosing a movie on Netflix, to buying or selling a stock online. Consumer decisions are as equally informed as they are fast, and federal and military decision makers need to operate under the same real-time parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Dedicated Force: <\/b>Cyber success \u2013 dominance \u2013 hinges on a proactive approach. That doesn\u2019t mean waiting on policy to be enacted, that doesn\u2019t mean hesitantly doling out sanctions for suspected cyber attacks, and it doesn\u2019t mean waiting for the fight to come to you. It means taking a proactive, offensive stance, and dedicating resources to protect assets before they are compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If those resources are assembled in a seventh military branch, it\u2019s likely to be a diverse group of players. With DoD involved much in the way they\u2019ve been involved with other branches in the past, we can expect other strategic input and involvement from the Department of Transportation and Customs and Border Protection. Given the unique combat experience the Army brings, and the Army\u2019s recently accelerated outfitting of its combat brigades, it\u2019s likely they will play a key role as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Time and necessity bring new technology and new technology brings new threats and opportunities. The subterranean domain isn\u2019t the last domain \u2013 it\u2019s just the next one we need to worry about. Just as the Dark Web presented cyber concerns from an anonymity perspective in the 90s, and quantum computing threatens the future of encryption as we know it, this too shall pass. But until it does, we need to be prepared, and we need to be ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Colby Proffitt is a senior technology strategist at NetCentrics Corporation.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Will U.S. defense leaders want a seventh force in the future?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":66,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,160,14,163,36,17,23],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5945],"class_list":["post-31440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-daily-news-roundup","category-land","category-military-space-report","category-newsletters","category-opinion","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4XS6NLTQG5EWFF2WPS7ED4BYBY","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/2018\/08\/09\/and-after-the-space-force-a-subterranean-force\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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