U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) has deployed teams of cyber professionals to assess military networks following a recent attack attributed to SolarWinds software, C4ISRnet reported Saturday. USCYBERCOM’s 68 cyber protection teams comprise a major part of the Department of Defense's cyber troops and serve as a response force in the event of a network breach by adversaries.
Each team is comprised of 39 cyber professionals that will first handle attack vectors, detect anomalous behavior and identify impacted network segments and machines. Capt. Katrina Cheesman, spokesperson for USCYBERCOM, said there is no indication that DOD networks have been breached following the recent attack.
Andrew Hall, former director of the U.S. Army Cyber Institute, noted that the DOD must think of the cyber attack from both defensive and offensive positions.
“The time that you spent trying to work on a network as an offensive person is going to help you understand where you might want to look defensively,” he said.
Experts have noted that assessing the extent of damages form any cyber attack could span months, according to the report.