Allies and partners play a key role in cybersecurity, said Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, who participated today in a virtual fireside chat at C4ISRNet CYBERCON 2021.
"We need to do a better job of understanding how we can use security cooperation and other mechanisms to help our allies and partners improve their cybersecurity. This is actually an area where we can really use industry's help because we have tremendous capability inside the United States in terms of providing cybersecurity for large enterprises, and I would argue that some of the best talent is actually in the private sector," she said.
Understanding where adversaries are likely to try and compromise some of those allies' capabilities is vitally important, she said.
Regarding the workforce, Eoyang said the Defense Department is competing in the private sector for really valuable talent.
"We in the department have a mission that is unparalleled, you know that we do things that we can't do in the private sector. So, we think that that has an appeal to it," she said, regarding recruiting and retaining the workforce.
As for the workforce, she said there's been a push to allow people from the private sector to join the reserves or come on active duty for a time to share their skills. "We need to think about a lifecycle approach to managing our cyber workforce. And that's something that we've had conversations with Cyber Command about how to do that."
Cybersecurity is a moving target, she noted.
"Things change all the time. Operations in the cyber domain are very different than in the physical domains because your aim point, unlike a port or an adversary military base, may not always be accessible. They flicker in and out, and, so what does that mean for our thinking and strategy given the ephemerality of that domain? That understanding of the ephemerality of the domain, I think, is a really important strategic insight that we need to figure out how to internalize and operate within for the department," she said.