Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

Cyber Command

Call For Cyberwar ‘Peacekeepers’ Force, And Willing to Relax Criteria to Get Them: BBC

On Jan. 26th, 2012, Susan Watts reported for BBC on a new US recruitment surge for "cyber-warriors" and the possibility of a UN cyber-peacekeeping force.

First, Watts wrote that the US military wants to recruit 10,000 new "cyber-warriors" to improve the US cyber-capability.  Interestingly, Watts claims that the US military will relax entrance criteria for these cyber-warriors by allowing long hair and "even someone who can't run too well . . ."

The article quoted Lt. Gen. Rhett Hernandez (who was kind enough to visit with us at Syracuse a few months ago), head of the US Army's Cyber Command: the baseline requirement is that new cyber-warrior recruits be "a professional elite . . . trusted and disciplined, and precise . . . collateral damage is not acceptable." 

The article goes on to consider the prospect of a UN cyber-peacekeeping force.  Noting the cyberwar between Georgia and Russia, US Cyber Consequences Unit member John Bumgarner believes that the UN needs to "figure out how they can deploy peace keepers in the digital borders of a nation." 

You can find the BBC source article here.

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