Air Force Lt. Gen. Kevin McLaughlin, deputy commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, has outlined how Cybercom journeyed toward the creation of cyber mission forces in a Tuesday address to the Air Force Association Air, Space and Cyber conference.
McLaughlin noted that Cybercom is in its sixth year of operations and received an order from the Defense Department in 2013 to build the Cyber Mission Force that currently stands at 133 teams.
He said the CMF 39 of those teams represent the Air Force and are led by Maj. Gen. Christopher Weggeman, Air Forces Cyber Command leader.
“We now have created an environment where we can take individuals or small teams, entire teams, or groups of teams, including those who are allies and train them,” McLaughlin said.
Cybercom works to defend DoD Information networks, support combatant commanders and protect U.S. critical infrastructure systems from attacks if called.
“Anything today that touches a computer system or embedded (information technology) is our responsibility,” he said.
Mclaughlin said the command is working to develop new a training environment, cyber data tools and command-and-control functions to help in offensive and defensive operations.
