Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

House members worry if the cyber force is the right size

Friday, March 6, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Cyber Security

Comments: 0

Members of Congress are concerned about the size of the Department of Defense’s cyber force.

U.S. Cyber Command’s cyber mission force consists of 133 offensive, support and defensive cyber teams. But during a March 4 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-Rhode Island, used his opening statement to ask about Cyber Command’s staffing.

“We need to candidly assess whether a force conceived more than seven years ago is sufficient for a dramatically different environment today,” he said. “I will also be curious to hear candid assessments on how organic capabilities resident in the Services are rationalized with CYBERCOM’s mission and strategy.””

Nakasone said during testimony the command plans to gather information for Pentagon leaders to make appropriate staffing decisions.

“A central challenge today is that our adversaries compete below the threshold of armed conflict, without triggering the hostilities for which DoD has traditionally prepared,” he said in written testimony. “That short-of-war competition features cyber and information operations employed by nations in ways that bypass America’s conventional military strengths.”

These expanded missions include a now enduring mission for Cyber Command to protect elections from foreign interference and influence as well as so-called hunt forward missions in which teams deploy to other nations to help them defend against malign cyber activity inside their networks. DoD officials believe these missions are critical to defending the U.S. homeland as they provide unique insights into activities of adversaries, which may be planning similar operations against U.S. networks.

In addition, due to new authorities from the executive branch and Congress, Cyber Command is also engaged in many more operations than in years past.

Photo: With an more expansive mission and responsibilities in recent years, members of Congress think DoD needs to update its cyber force structure. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Steve Stover)

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