With Plan X, Pentagon seeks to spread U.S. military might to cyberspace

Source: Washington Post

With Plan X, Pentagon seeks to spread U.S. military might to cyberspace
By Ellen Nakashima, Wednesday, May 30, 1:00 PM

The Pentagon is turning to the private sector, universities and even computer gamers as part of an ambitious effort to develop technologies to improve its cyberwarfare capabilities, launch effective attacks and withstand the likely retaliation.

The previously unreported effort, which its authors have dubbed Plan X, marks a new phase in the nation’s fledgling military operations in cyberspace, which have focused more on protecting the Defense Departments’s own computer systems than on disrupting or destroying those of enemies.

Plan X is a project of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Pentagon agency that focuses on experimental efforts and has a key role in harnessing computing power to help the military wage war more effectively.

“If they can do it, it’s a really big deal,” said Herbert S. Lin, a cyber expert with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. “If they achieve it, they’re talking about being able to dominate the digital battlefield just like they do the traditional battlefield.”


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