A series of cyber war games organized by the US Defense department has revealed unexpected ways in which threat actors could sabotage military operations, even if military networks are well protected. The vulnerabilities stem from the military’s reliance on private contractors and civilian infrastructure. For instance, military operations could be disrupted by cyber attacks on the power gird or railroad switches, but also through supply-chain attacks on contractors.
“We’re finding you can be really secure in your network space and [still] lose a mission because an adversary can attack in one of those other layers,” a Defense Department official stated, adding that in order to reduce “the risk to mission at the combatant command level, we have to protect more than the traditional IT space.”
Read more: A Secure Network Is Not Enough, Cyber Wargames Show
