The American Secretary of Defense has formally instituted a new special cybersecurity force. The department is expected to operate under the tutelage of the American strategy center, announced Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
According to information released by the France Press Agency, the new department will be operational in October, but it should only be fully operational one year later.
Keith Alexander – current director of the National Security Agency (NSA) – is the expected name for the leadership of the new cybersecurity force, according to the same source. The NSA director described cyberspace as the new military frontier capable of dictating the future of national security, comparable to air or sea power.
The creation of a special force to deal with computer threats had already been announced by Barack Obama on 29 May. When the results of a study came out that advised the government to create an autonomous department to manage cybersecurity, hitherto dispersed among several departments, the American president expressed the intention to create a figure – at the time designated as «Cyber Czar» – which would report directly to the national security and economic councils.
In the proposed defense budget for 2010, the administration proposed an increase in funds to triple the number of computer security experts, from 80 to 250 per year.
Some analysts have already expressed their concern about a possible more aggressive approach to computer security, fearing that it threatens the privacy and individual freedoms of citizens.
