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The Military Security United States

Cyber Command Task Force Conducted Its First Offensive Operation (thedrive.com) 31

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Drive: AU.S. Cyber Command task force executed what is being described as its "first offensive cyber effect operation" against real-world cyber threats. While the exact nature of the operation and its target remains unknown, the event was significant enough for the U.S. Secretary of Defense to personally attend to watch the operation in action. The operation was conducted between February and August 2021 by a task force consisting of personnel from the Maryland Air National Guard's 175th Cyber Operations Group, the Delaware Air National Guard's 166th Cyber Operations Squadron, U.S. Navy's Cyber Strike Activity Sixty-Three, the U.S. Air Force's 341st Cyber Operations Squadron, and the Air Force Reserve. The task force executed the operation from February to August last year, although the Air National Guard (ANG) just announced it this week. While there have been other offensive cyber operations conducted by U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), this is the first conducted and acknowledged by this particular task force.

Details about the specific threat countered by the task force's cyber offensive are scarce, but USAF Maj. Corley Bradford, director of operations for 175th Cyberspace Operations Squadron, said the offensive cyber operation involved the security of Department of Defense information networks. "[Our] NMT was a direct contributor to [our task force] conducting a successful offensive cyber effects operation," Bradford stated in an ANG press release. "It was a lot of excitement to finally see the fruits of our labor when [our task force] delivered its first offensive cyber effects operations during this mobilization," said Bradford. Interestingly, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III was on hand to personally witness the operation. "It was a massive milestone," Maj. Bradford said, "so he wanted front row seats to see the action firsthand."

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Cyber Command Task Force Conducted Its First Offensive Operation

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  • Delaware Air National Guard's 166th Cyber Operations Squadron, U.S. Navy's Cyber Strike Activity Sixty-Three, the U.S. Air Force's 341st Cyber Operations Squadron After establishing so many squadrons you'd expect them to eventually get one or two that are effective. Congratulations to all involved. Except squadrons 1 to 165.

    • Does not work that way.
      166th just indicates they fall under the 166th Wing and while there are a lot of Wings at the Federal and State levels not all of them have cyber operations.
      • Does not work that way. 166th just indicates they fall under the 166th Wing and while there are a lot of Wings at the Federal and State levels not all of them have cyber operations.

        Correct, nor does it indicate there are 166 Wings since some may have been deactivated and the USAF doesn't renumber when that happens.

        • Thank goodness for the advent of heavier-than-air craft, lest the organizational units have been called Bags rather than Wings. I have photos of my grandfather's United States Army Balloon Squadron training camp from WW1.
  • Yes, sure. I might possibly believe this is the first for this instance of this unit. No way this is the first offensive operation of the cyber command; if it really is "The First", then somebody wasted a lot of tax payer money.
  • by presearch ( 214913 ) on Friday January 07, 2022 @10:58PM (#62154409)

    The should have robots.
    Really big robots.

  • They finally took care of Timmy, who was talking smack on Xbox Live!
  • by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Saturday January 08, 2022 @01:54AM (#62154587) Homepage
    ...but we can't tell you what. Trust us, it totally justifies our budget.
  • by BcNexus ( 826974 ) on Saturday January 08, 2022 @01:59AM (#62154591)
    Sounds like it had to do with the DoD IP space which had some stuff start going on in January 21. https://apnews.com/article/tec... [apnews.com]
  • by takionya ( 7833802 ) on Saturday January 08, 2022 @06:02AM (#62154801)
    First thing “Cyber Command” should do is take Microsoft Windows out and shoot it !!!
    • That would be a good start.

      Windows security problems are the majority of the problems.

      Might want to consider some of their security team too.
                    Black list them from any security role in the future.

      We are never going to get smarter users, so we are going to have to protect what we can.

      Only allow net handles as name, no real world information.

  • Interestingly, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III was on hand to personally witness the operation

    They scanned him into it, like on Tron [wikipedia.org].

  • all 10 of them?
  • "Offensive cyber operations" are an exercise in pissing away capabilities for no reason.

  • BeauHD posted an article on the enemy's website and the complaints immediately caused a denial of service attack.

  • I've been thinking that any cyberattack that results in loss of human life should be just cause for identification of the perpetrators and the assassination of same. A few of those and the problem would greatly diminish.
  • These are imaginary TV character science fiction baddies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Whatever the claims, just more BS. Next they will be going after Dialects and their evil bitcoin moves to dominate the planets.
  • We attacked someone deserving and it was successful. The target is none of your business. The results are none of your business. The fallout will maybe be your business...

A committee takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom. -- Parkinson

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