Military says good cyber offense equals good defense

The military must improve its offensive and defensive cyberwarfare capabilities to protect the nation's networks from foreign hackers, military leaders said on Thursday.

Representatives from the various branches of the armed services gathered Thursday in Washington to discuss the threat. Officials said U.S. networks are constantly being probed by adversaries seeking information of strategic or economic value.

"The threat is amorphous," said Major General George Allen, deputy director of the Marine Corps Cyber Command. "Operations are constant ... all the people, hackers, third-world countries, all the threats out there that we see …. are real, and they’re real time."

Military officials said developing the U.S.'s cyber cabilities is a top priority.

"I believe [cyberwarfare] is one of the nation’s tools in our toolbox to achieve a political agenda," said Maj. Gen. Paul Capasso, director of network services in the Office of the Air Force Chief Information Officer. He said the military is working hard to come up with a policy blueprint for waging cyberwarfare.

"Because of nature of the [cyber] domain, the term warfare takes on a completely different meaning in terms of who’s involved," said Brig. Gen. Gregory Brundidge, a deputy director with European Command. "We're constantly engaged in operations, from defending our information, to getting infomation we need, to stopping others from getting information. There's no real phase zero in cyberwarfare."

Allen said there is a need for greater coordination between the military personnel who identify and prevent cyber attacks and the groups that attempt to breach enemy systems. He also called the military's IT procurement process broken and said there's an urgent need for a faster purchase system.

"We need to blend defense with attack...we haven’t blended that yet," Allen said. "We need to cooperate much like a sports team does, where everything works together in a harmonic way."