A new report by the Department of Defense’s office of the director for operational test and evaluation showed that cyber red teams found greater difficulty in breaching defenses of DoD networks.
“These improvements are both noteworthy and encouraging, but we estimate that the rate of these improvements is not outpacing the growing capabilities of potential adversaries, who continue to find new vulnerabilities and techniques to counter the fixes and countermeasures by DOD defenders,†according to DOT&E’s fiscal 2018 cybersecurity report.
The office of DOT&E conducted over 50 cyber assessments with service branches and combatant commands and found that a gap between the capabilities of the Pentagon’s cyber red teams and advanced persistent threat continues to exist.
DOT&E noted that it continues to collaborate with the department’s red teams to address the gap by adding more personnel and building up training and capabilities.
“Recent advances in cyber technologies indicate that automation – and even artificial intelligence – are beginning to make profound changes to the cyber domain,†the report noted.
The office of DOT&E also called for realistic demonstrations of resilience and capabilities to enable DoD to counter multipronged cyber attacks.
Â