Pacific Command bolsters network defense with Cyber Defense Forces Pacific

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has shipped some cyber operators from Maryland to sunny Hawaii in an effort to reinforce US Pacific Command’s technical defenses there under a concept called Cyber Defense Forces Pacific, according to a senior PACOM official.

Brig. Gen. Michael Smith, director for command, control, communications, computers and cyber at PACOM, told the TechNet Indo-Pacific Conference that the newcomers assigned to the Defense Information Systems Agency Pacific provide “a level of additional cybersecurity defense here in this theater.” DISA-Pacific is the regional field command of the Fort Meade-based organization.

“[I’m] really thankful for those folks because when they weren’t here, it’s just me,” he said at the event last week.

The personnel were drawn from the DoD’s Cyber Defense Command (DCDC), which is also based in Fort Meade in Maryland. The DCDC falls under US Cyber Command and is responsible for defending the Pentagon’s data networks.

Smith called the relocation to Hawaii of some servicemembers a “roll down” of DCDC personnel to PACOM’s area of responsibility, meant to “build out a more robust defender perspective with all the tools and assets to go with that.” The newly assigned personnel are trained to be adept at protecting information and responding to incidents, he said.

While Smith did not discuss any specific threats to PACOM networks, the command operates in the region with perhaps America’s most technically proficient adversary: China. Experts say that Beijing, for instance, has been caught targeting the networks of military critical infrastructure installations in Guam, a key US military installation, in an effort to cripple a Washington response to action in the region.

In the face of that and other threats in cyberspace, CYBERCOM has sought to increase cyber defense funding in the region in recent years.