In a speech by Chuck Hagel at the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland last Friday, the Defense Secretary stated that while the United States’ mission is not to “militarize” cyberspace, the Pentagon does have plans to increase our nation’s defenses against network attacks, including nearly tripling the U.S. cyber defense force by 2016, according to the New York Times.
As the Times further articulates, this message seems to operate dually as one of both attack and restraint, which may seem oddly timed especially in light of the allegations that surfaced last week that the U.S. created backdoors into Huawei networks.
Also important to point out, this was the first live broadcast from NSA/CYBERCOM headquarters. As NBC News puts it, this is “a fact that [Hagel] said demonstrated an effort for greater openness on U.S. defense cyber activities.”
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