The Situation is Under Control: Cyberspace situational awareness and the implications of China's internet censorship; Strategic Insights: v.10, issue 1 (Spring 2011)

Abstract

Just prior to his confirmation as Commander of US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), General Keith B. Alexander identified the need to improve cyberspace situational awareness as one of his central responsibilities—and challenges.1 This mission is rooted in the need to monitor computing activities across the 15,000 networks and seven million devices that compose the Department of Defense (DoD) information and communications technology (ICT) enterprise.2 Complicating this mission further, USCYBERCOM must also conduct offensive operations in cyberspace and potentially assist the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to defend other information systems across the federal government and US critical infrastructures.3 These demands help explain what a Defense Information Systems Agency official recently called DoD’s “insatiable desire for situational awareness” in cyberspace.