The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have established a pilot program with leading private defense contractors and ISPs called DIB Cyber Pilot in an attempt to strengthen each others' knowledge base regarding growing security threats in cyberspace, a high-ranking DOD official told a gathering of global security experts this week.
"[F]or all the military capability that information technology enables, it also introduces vulnerabilities," said Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn, speaking at the 28th Annual International Workshop on Global Security in Paris on Thursday. "We learned this lesson in 2008 when a foreign intelligence agency used a thumb drive to penetrate our classified computer systems—something we thought was impossible. It was our worst fear: a rogue program operating silently on our system, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an enemy.
"The cyber threat continues to grow, posing new dangers to our security that far exceed the 2008 breach of our classified systems."
The Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Cyber Pilot program was started last month, Lynn said. The voluntary program involves sharing the DOD's classified threat intelligence with defense contractors and their private Internet service providers (ISPs), "along with the know-how to employ it in network defense.
More than $500m (£309m) has been allocated by the Department of Defense to develop "cyber technologies".
The National Cyber Range project is being overseen by the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which was also involved in early network research that led to the internet.
When ready, it will function as a test-bed for defensive and possibly offensive technologies such as network protection systems.
Having a controllable mini-internet would allow researchers to carry-out experiments "in days rather than the weeks it currently takes," Darpa spokesman Eric Mazzacone told the Reuters news agency.
Unlike the real internet, the in-house version could be wiped or reset between tests, explained Mr Mazzacone.
Development of the National Cyber Range is currently in the hands of several organisations, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Lockheed Martin.
One of their prototypes will be selected to go into operation later in the year.
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