Speaking to a group of active-duty military personnel, civilian defense insiders and journalists, Welsh likened the Air Force’s expansion into the cyber realm to its prior addition of space to its command repertoire, saying its cyber involvement is meant to complement – rather than replace – its primary-domain activities.

But despite the shift, Welsh said the cyber playing field gives the Air Force a two-fold precision advantage in mission execution by improving the reach of the missions and the control over the scope of attacks.

“We have access through the cyber domain to targets that we couldn’t get to before,” he said.

Cyber gives the Air Force the option to deactivate sections of networks or communication chains compared with wiping them out completely, he said.

He also noted that cyber attacks are easier and more precise than dropping “a very precise weapon that has 500 pounds of TNT in it.”

“There’s nothing precise about that,” Welsh said.

Welsh acknowledged that government cyber professionals are wary of Defense Department involvement in the cyber sector “because DoD brings blunt-force trauma to everything” by virtue of its size and “heavy footprint.”

The forum was sponsored by Defense One and Northrop Grumman.

Listen to Gen. Welsh in conversation with DefenseOne reporter Marcus Weisgerber on cyber and the Air Force here:

Paul Rosenzweig shares his expertise to help reporters better understand cyber crime — how much money and intellectual property are we losing every day and what it means. How can governments around the globe coordinate to fight a criminal element that knows no boundaries? The webinar, organized by Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, was held on Oct. 16, 2013 from the Northwestern University campus in Evanston, IL and the Medill Washington Bureau.

(CNN) Cyber security bill promotes sharing of threat data By CNN Sr. National Security Producer Pam Benson Legislation introduced in the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday is designed to knock down the barriers that interfere with the federal government and the private sector sharing critical information about cybersecurity threats.

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The bill would enable the intelligence community to share classified information with the private sector while at the same time addressing the concerns private companies have with providing information about attacks on their systems to the government. Communication between the two sides has been problematic and difficult.

The government has limited the amount of information it provides private industry about cyberattacks for fear of compromising secrets.

(Washington Times) Federal officials believe there was no cyberattack on a small water utility in Illinois this month, saying the initial report from the state’s counterterrorism center was wrong.

The FBI and Homeland Security Department conducted a “detailed analysis” and found no evidence of a “cyber intrusion” into the control system of the Curran-Gardner Public Water District in the capital of Springfield, said Homeland Security Department spokesman Chris Ortman. FULL STORY

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Ten years later, the terrorists’ weapon of choice may not necessarily be a 187,000 pound 767 jet loaded with fuel targeting New York City’s 110 story iconic structures that fell, taking 2,753 innocent lives with it. Today’s digital terrorist is sitting in his pajamas armed with a keyboard, mouse, and a computer that is anonymously connected into the world of the Internet. Oftentimes their target is not a specific person but rather an attack causing large scale disruptions that potentially affect millions of innocent computer users