SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2015, Issue No. 58
September 10, 2015

Secrecy News Blog: http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/

PENTAGON'S CYBER MISSION FORCE TAKES SHAPE

The Department of Defense plans to complete the establishment of a new Cyber Mission Force made up of 133 teams of more than 6000 "cyber operators" by 2018, and it's already nearly halfway there.

From FY2014-2018, DoD intends to spend $1.878 billion dollars to pay for the Cyber Missions Force consisting of approximately 6100 individuals in the four military services, DoD said in response to a question for the record that was published in a congressional hearing volume last month.

"This effort began in October 2013 and today we have 3100 personnel assigned to 58 of the 133 teams," or nearly 50% of the intended capacity, DoD wrote in response to a question from Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) of the House Armed Services Committee. The response was included in the published record of a February 26, 2015 Committee hearing (page 67).

The DoD Cyber Mission Force was described in an April 2015 DoD Cyber Strategy and in April 2015 testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Eric Rosenbach:

"The Department of Defense has three primary missions in cyberspace: (1) defend DoD information networks to assure DoD missions, (2) defend the United States against cyberattacks of significant consequence, and (3) provide full-spectrum cyber options to support contingency plans and military operations," Mr. Rosenbach said.

"To carry out these missions, we are building the Cyber Mission Force and equipping it with the appropriate tools and infrastructure to operate in cyberspace. Once fully manned, trained, and equipped in Fiscal Year 2018, these 133 teams will execute USCYBERCOM's three primary missions with nearly 6,200 military and civilian personnel," Mr. Rosenbach said at an April 14 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The new Cyber Mission Force will naturally have both defensive and offensive characteristics.

"Congressman, we are building these cyber teams... in order to, one, protect ourselves from cyber attacks," said Adm. Cecil D. Haney, commander of U.S. Strategic Command. "We are being probed on a daily basis by a variety of different actors."

"The protection side is one thing," said Rep. Larsen at the February hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. "What about the other side?"

"The other aspect of it, we are distributing these forces out to the various combatant commands so that they can be integrated into our overall joint military force capability," Adm. Haney replied.

* * *

"Worldwide Cyber Threats" was the subject of an open hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

The foreign intrusions suffered by U.S. government and private networks have yielded some useful lessons, said Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper.

"Of late, unauthorized disclosures and foreign defensive improvements have cost us some technical accesses, but we are also deriving valuable new insight from cyber security investigations of incidents caused by foreign actors and new means of aggregating and processing big data. Those avenues will help offset some more traditional collection modes that are obsolescent," he told the Committee.

GOVT EMPLOYEES TURN TO OSC IN RECORD NUMBERS

Federal employees turned to the Office of Special Counsel in record numbers last year to file complaints of whistleblower retaliation, prohibited personnel practices, and other violations of law and policy.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal agency whose "primary mission is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for whistleblowing." It has been led by Special Counsel Carolyn N. Lerner since 2011.

"Fiscal year (FY) 2014 was a record-breaking year for the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC)," according to the FY 2014 OSC annual report that was transmitted to Congress last month.

"For the first time, OSC received over 5,000 cases, a 17 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. The number of prohibited personnel practice (PPP) complaints was also at an all-time high, 3,371, nearly a thousand more than just four years prior. We also received significantly more whistleblower disclosures in FY 2014 than in past years."

OSC said it has effectively intervened in a growing number of cases, which tends to inspire even more complaints to be filed, perhaps to the point of unsustainability.

"The number of favorable outcomes for whistleblowers and other employees across the government continues to break all-time records," the report said. "OSC secured 177 favorable outcomes in 2014 helping to restore the careers of courageous public servants who blew the whistle on fraud, waste and abuse, or encountered another form of prohibited conduct in the government. This total represents an increase of 185 percent over six years ago."

"These victories for whistleblowers, the taxpayers, and the merit system showcase OSC's effectiveness and increase awareness of the agency in the federal community. As a result, the number of employees seeking OSC's assistance continues to grow, posing daunting challenges to the agency."

"We anticipate receiving over 6,000 new cases in FY 2015, more than a 60 percent increase over the ten-year averaged annual case load level. OSC already faces the largest case backlog in agency history," the OSC annual report said.

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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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