Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

army, China, Cybersecurity, DOD, IBM

Cyber Round Up: IBM turns Watson into cyber weapon; Army introduces cyber fast track; Details on China’s new cyber law

  •  IBM Turns Watson Into A Cybersecurity Weapon Amid White House Interest (Forbes):  IBM’s large investment into its cognitive software Watson has expanded into the cyber security field, a recent report says.   Watson has the ability to read millions of documents and huge quantities of information and produce an analysis that humans cannot, the article said.   This ability is now being applied to some organizations’ cyber needs, as 50 of IBM’s customers have been using the technology this way.  IBM touts the program as being able to add a layer of defense and proactively find breaches and hacking attempts that would otherwise go unnoticed, according to the article.   IBM is offering a free trial followed by what would be a premium software upgrade, and hopes that the Trump Administration could be a potential business partner moving forward.  The full article can be read here.
  • U.S. Army Introduces Cyber Fast Track for Civilians (AFCEA):   A blog post yesterday suggests that the U.S. Army is taking steps to increase its cyber work force.  The post explained that the program could potentially allow for civilians to bypass some requirements and be directly commissioned into the service with a rank as high as colonel. The Department of Defense as a whole has asked the service branches to submit ideas for the future, but the Army is expediting the process, the article said.  The Army’s recent bug bounty program showed the need for better cyber security.  The article also said that which skill sets will be targeted requires further discussion.  The full article can be read here.
  • China Reveals More Details on Its Impending Cyber Security Law (Forbes):   Late last year, China passed a long awaited cyber security bill that added requirements for “network operators” including the implementation of internal security systems.  An article yesterday went more in depth explaining what the details of the law consist of.  The Cyber Administration of China first requires a review of critical structure information systems, the report says.   The new details about the law also show that China will have a Network Security Inspection Committee, and expand on security requirements for systems affecting public interest and national security.  The full article summarizing the new information can be read here.

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