USAF preps cyber review

The Air Force has been undergoing a months-long cybersecurity review and is ready to deliver it to the deputy defense secretary, said a senior Air Force intelligence director.

Lt. Gen. Veralinn Jamieson, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Cyber Effects Operations, said the branch was preparing results of an internal cybersecurity audit for the deputy defense secretary.

"We've been doing a cyber review just like the Navy has done, just like the Army is doing, and we're about to brief that out here shortly to the deputy secretary of defense on our capabilities and how we're going to get after [vulnerabilities]," she said speaking at a the Air Force Association's Air Space Cyber conference at National Harbor on Sept. 18. "Because unless we protect our power projection platforms, we really don't have them."

The news comes as the Air Force gets a new confirmed secretary. The Senate confirmed Barbara Barrett, a former Aerospace Corp. chief, Sept. 18. During her confirmation hearing Sept. 12, Barrett said she would support an extensive cybersecurity review of the Air Force, modeled on the Navy's comprehensive cybersecurity review completed earlier this year.

Jamieson told reporters during a media briefing Sept. 18 the review "was not completely done" but it looks at how priorities align to address cyber vulnerabilities. "What pieces, parts do we need to put in place for future development so vulnerabilities are not created in the first place," she said. Jamieson said the organization is working with Air Force Materiel Command and their Cyber Resiliency of Weapons Systems division.

The news comes as the Air Force has made several moves to better integrate cyber across its forces including merging its cyber and information operations. The Air Force announced Sept. 18 that it would combine Air Combat Command's 24th and 25th Numbered Air Forces into one: the 16th Air Force, which will focus on information warfare.