It seems like nothing is impossible when it comes to technology in this day an age. As the years pass, technology continues to evolve with more and more advanced techniques. Many have celebrated the freedom they experience when it comes to being able to reaching out to people in the farthest corners of the Earth. For agencies like the State Department and the Defense Department, it brings up nothing but worry and fear. Threats to their networks from robots, viruses, and advanced cyber spying techniques are a constant battle.

In an attempt to cope with the advancement of technology, three agencies of the government have created an innovative summit, which took place on March 2nd. The three agencies – the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department, and the Defense Department – joined together to strategize the best ways to combat and solve worldwide security problems.

The_Pentagon_January_2008

The Pentagon

One government agency that has sought help in combating cyber attacks is the Pentagon. The defense technology they have and was only accessible to the defense industry has now become easily obtainable by hackers. Frank Kendall, the Undersecretary of Defense, spoke at the summit about one of the consequences of constant hacker attacks on their top secret military information. Paired up with Ashton Carter, the Defense Secretary, the two men have reached out to anyone who could help – including the commercial industry. After a trip to Silicon Valley earlier this year, Carter has started to structure a board of 12 members to help come up with defense technology against the attacks and how to improve the Pentagon’s technology.

At the panel Kendall stated that the Pentagon plans to spend $35 billion dollars over the course of five years into their budget for cybersecurity. This will help to accelerate various projects and products to help fight against the barrage of threats. It’s not a shock to anyone that the threats come from both inside and outside the Pentagon, yet they can’t figure out a way to measure them. In fact, it seems to be impossible.

Touching upon this, Kendall was quoted saying; “We don’t know how vulnerable we are in some cases. It is constantly moving. We have made great strides in DoD to protect ourselves. But there are lots of unknowns. An adversary can plant a weapon and leave it there indefinitely. That’s the sort of problem we’re dealing with.”

Asking for help from the commercial industry has resulted with mixed feelings from various parties. Kendall feels that a lack of resources has hindered the defense industry, but asking for help will allow them to grow. Hopefully with the amount of money flowing into their budget, the Pentagon will be able to protect themselves and learn to defend before the strike even happens.