SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2018, Issue No. 4
January 12, 2018

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

ARMY SKETCHES FUTURE CYBERSPACE OPERATIONS

The U.S. Army this week published an overview of future military cyberspace operations. See The U.S. Army Concept for Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Operations 2025-2040, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-8-6, 9 January 2018:

The new Army publication is intended to promote development of cyber capabilities, to foster integration with other military functions, to shape recruitment, and to guide technology development and acquisition. It addresses defense against cyber threats as well as offensive cyber activities.

Proliferation of cyber threats is eroding the benefits of US superiority in conventional military power, the document said.

"The Army faces a complex and challenging environment where the expanding distribution of cyberspace and EMS [electromagnetic spectrum] technologies will continue to narrow the combat power advantage that the Army has had over potential adversaries."

"Adversaries will conduct complex cyberspace attacks integrated with military operations or independent of traditional military operations."

"Since every device presents a potential vulnerability, this trend represents an exponential growth of targets through which an adversary could access Army operational networks, systems, and information."

"Conversely, it presents opportunities for the enhanced synchronization of Army technologies and information to exploit adversary dependencies on cyberspace."

"If deterrence fails, Army forces isolate, overwhelm, and defeat adversaries in cyberspace and the EMS to meet the commander's objectives."

"These [Army] capabilities exploit adversary systems to facilitate intelligence collection, target adversary cyberspace and EMS functions, and create first order effects. Cyberspace and EW [electronic warfare] operations also create cascading effects across multiple domains to affect weapons systems, command and control processes, critical infrastructure, and key resources to outmaneuver adversaries physically and cognitively, applying combined arms in and across all domains."

Military action in cyberspace is an evolving field that may have overtaken existing law or convention.

"Many effects of cyberspace operations require considerable legal and policy review," the Army document said.

MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCING, AND MORE FROM CRS

Mandatory minimum sentencing in drug-related criminal prosecutions has "contributed to an explosion in the federal prison population and attendant costs," a new report from the Congressional Research Service on the laws of mandatory sentencing observes.

"Thus, the federal inmate population at the end of 1976 was 23,566, and at the end of 1986 it was 36,042. On January 4, 2018, the federal inmate population was 183,493." The costs incurred by the federal prison system have increased accordingly. See Mandatory Minimum Sentencing of Federal Drug Offenses by CRS Senior Specialist Charles Doyle, January 11, 2018:

Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.

Attorney General's Memorandum on Federal Marijuana Enforcement: Possible Impacts, CRS Legal Sidebar, January 10, 2018:

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): An Overview, updated January 9, 2018:

Facing the FACT Act: Abortion and Free Speech (Part I), CRS Legal Sidebar, January 10, 2018:

Update: Who's the Boss at the CFPB?, CRS Legal Sidebar, updated January 11, 2018:

Venezuela's Economic Crisis: Issues for Congress, January 10, 2018:

Transatlantic Relations in 2018, CRS Insight, January 10, 2018:

Overview of "Travel Ban" Litigation and Recent Developments, CRS Legal Sidebar, updated January 10, 2018:

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

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