Over the next three years, the U.S. Army will be filling its brand new cyber warfare institute at West Point with the best and brightest hackers it can find. Not just hackers, however: the institute will bring together psychologists, lawyers, mathematicians—anyone who can help the country win the inevitable cyber war and save America.
It sounds a bit bombastic to talk about cybersecurity that way, but the Army is not messing around. Col. Greg Conti, the chairman of the new Army Cyber Institute, compares the new cyber warriors to the pilots that once made up the Army Air Corps. "I think we're building a unique team that's never been done before," Conti told the Army Times. "It's a very exciting time," he added. "It feels a bit like we're at the birth of the Air Force, like we're that kind of historic era."
Historic, indeed. President Obama's taken the threat of cyber warfare very seriously, not only naming potential targets but actually ordering devastating attacks. The Army Cyber Institute, which will be headquartered at the West Point Military Academy, will recruit about 25 people a year to help the country prepare to defend the nation against these threats and mount the attacks that will give the U.S. an advantage. The Army Times likens it to a sort of "cyber Ranger School" that "will be defining how cyber warfare is waged."
Thinking about soldiers in fatigues staring at screens sure gives new meaning to that whole "Army of One" slogan, doesn't it? [Army Times]
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