Host Nation Cybersecurity in Future Stability Operations
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cyberspace is now fundamental to the governance, economic growth, and social lives of populations within developed and developing countries. In addition, cyberspace capabilities have proven indispensable for relief efforts in disaster and conflict zones. Meanwhile, adversaries have also evolved in their sophistication and now increasingly threaten cyber capabilities. Because nonmilitary organizations retain significant experience in cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection, the best practices they have developed provide a framework for future Army doctrine. This article explores integrating such precedents for host nation cybersecurity during U.S. Army stability operations. Defining Cyberspace In defining cyberspace, security experts Peter Singer and Allan Friedman keep it simple: "At its essence, cyberspace is the realm of computer networks (and the users behind them) in which information is stored, shared, and communicated online." (1) Similarly, the U.S. military defines cyberspace as "the global domain within the information environment consisting of the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures and resident data, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers." (2) Over the next thirty years, the Army anticipates conflicts will grow more complex as adversaries leverage advanced technologies, including those that take the fight into the cyber domain. (3) For America's homeland defense, the U.S. military has invested in cyber capabilities "to protect vital networks and infrastructure." (4) The Pentagon focuses cybersecurity efforts toward protecting military systems. (5) Current military cyberspace doctrine emphasizes securing the military's own information systems to ensure freedom of maneuver. (6) The Army, Cyberspace, and Stability Operations Current doctrine inadequately addresses the cyberspace imperatives for stability operations. And, since even the world's poorest countries are now reliant on cyberspace the most likely areas in which U.S. military operations will be conducted with coalition partners in the future U.S. military doctrine must consider ways in which cyberspace simultaneously influences all lines of effort during stability operations. America expects its military to train for and execute stability operations regardless of today's uncertain information environment. Stability operations involve "various military missions, tasks, and activities conducted outside the United States in coordination with other instruments of national power to maintain or reestablish a safe and secure environment, provide essential governmental services, emergency infrastructure reconstruction, and humanitarian relief." (7) Notably, all joint operations rely on cyberspace, which enables the joint force to integrate operations across the land, air, maritime, and space domains. (8) Consequently, the Army must also train to potentially achieve essential cybersecurity for a host nation during stability operations. Mobile Wireless Networks: Examples of an Essential Service Reliant on Cyberspace One manifestation of cyberspace is civilian mobile wireless networks. Recent crises have proven that such mobile networks are indispensable for responders. For example, during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, the Sierra Leone government used text messages to transmit public health messages. (9) Mobile data sharing was also essential in recovery efforts after the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. (10) And, after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, mobile networks enabled lifesaving communication between relief workers and local citizens. With phone lines overwhelmed, Nepalese survivors relied on the Internet to share information. (11) Mobile networks again proved indispensable during the response to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, when local citizens depended heavily on mobile networks to access critical emergency information.