Military Review English Edition May-June 2014 | Page 40

CyberSecurity

It Isn’t Just for Signal Officers Anymore
(PHOTO: U.S. Air Force)

Lt. Col. D. Bruce Roeder, U.S. Army, Retired

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“

IGO!” WAS THE CRY that went up at the dining-in when the cantankerous public
address microphone on the dais at the officers’ club ballroom failed to work. The
meat eaters in the unit would laugh or smile in relief as the poor SIGO (signal officer)
valiantly struggled to get the malfunctioning feature of the podium to work as it should
have. That is how some of us have approached the subject of cybersecurity: it is that
wire-head guy’s bailiwick, and thank goodness!
Well, if it ever was so, then it is no more. When Director of National Intelligence
James R. Clapper issued the 2013 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence
Community to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, cyberthreats appeared ahead
of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in its list of global threats to U.S. national
security.1 Indeed, cyberattacks are constantly in the news. Cybersecurity expert and Finnish reserve officer Mikko H.