The Pentagon’s newest combatant command has capacity to address current cyber-related threats posed by foreign nations, but may need to grow as adversaries become more adept, its leader said Feb. 14.
U.S. Cyber Command’s cyber warfare cadre includes 133 teams, performing offensive, defensive, intelligence and analytic work for the command. Those teams are the “building block” of the command’s capacity to counter cyber attacks from both near-peer adversaries such as Russia and China as well as rogue states such as Iran, CYBERCOM Commander and National Security Agency Director Army Gen. Paul Nakasone testified Thursday at a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing.
“My sense is, as we continue to operate more, as our adversaries continue to improve, that there will be requirements that will probably be outside the 133 teams that we have right now,” he said.
He noted that the Defense Department is in the middle of building a series of “defensive teams” within the Army Reserves and the National Guard, which will serve as “strategic depth for us.”