Exploring the vital role of cybersecurity in the military: applications, technologies, & training

Cybersecurity in the military could mean the difference between life and death. Today’s battles are no longer contained to the physical battlefield but are also in the digital world, as hackers and other parties attempt to get a strategic advantage through data.

Cyberterrorism is on the rise in every industry. Our military organizations need a solid cybersecurity strategy, experts, and technology to protect our national defences and our nation’s secrets and data. This information could give another nation or special interest group a strategic advantage on the physical and digital battlefields.

In this article, we will explore cybersecurity's vital role in military operations. We’ll discuss the security challenges our military faces and how emerging technologies are helping mitigate them.

The role of cybersecurity in military operations

Modern military operations rely on cybersecurity to protect digital and physical assets essential to protecting military networks, infrastructure, and people (civilian and military). Cybersecurity protects critical and classified military strategy for current, past, and future operations. It secures vital national infrastructure like power and water and safeguards against hacks that could take over critical military drones or communication systems.

Advanced training in cybersecurity and computer science is beneficial for military cyber jobs. Learn more about a career in cybersecurity.

Encrypting data

The military uses sophisticated data encryption to protect its data and information systems from cyber terrorists. Military-grade encryptions (such as FIPS 140, NSA Type 1, and AES-256) use substitution and transposition ciphers. Data can be transmitted safely and looks unreadable to anyone stealing or intercepting it unless you have the decryption key with the cipher code. These data keys are changed often to avoid enemy forces accessing and using them.

Providing secure communication channels

Secure communication channels are essential for safe and secure military operations and day-to-day duties. Military communications use advanced encryption protocols and secure channels to ensure reliable and protected communications. They also support redundant and resilient infrastructures to maintain connectivity globally.

Mitigating against cyber warfare strategies

Cyber warfare is when a third party manipulates, steals, or accesses data and systems with the malicious intent to disrupt, destroy, or deny its use.

Seven specific types of cyber attacks are known in military cyber warfare:

• Espionage - Stealing secrets from other countries (usually involving botnets or sphere phishing to compromise information systems)
• Sabotage - Stealing or leveraging information or using insider threats through dissatisfied employees or employees with outside affiliations
• Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks - Flooding websites and systems with fake requests to prevent legitimate users from accessing the system
• Electrical power grid - Attacking through disablement of power grids to disrupt infrastructure or stop communications
• Propaganda attacks - Spreading of embarrassing truths or lies to control the minds and actions of others
• Economic disruption - Cyber attacks to disrupt stock markets, payment systems or banks
• Surprise attacks - Strategic, large-scale attacks designed to weaken the enemy, sometimes as a precursor to a physical, ground attack.

Today’s challenges in military cybersecurity

Today's military is faced with many challenges to their cybersecurity:

Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)

Advanced Persistent Threats are cyber attacks designed to siphon critical data from a military or governmental system over weeks, months, or years. They often go unnoticed and can expand their penetration in a network over time.

APTs usually begin by exploiting human vulnerabilities through social engineering or spear phishing attacks. Once inside, the attacker creates additional 'backdoors' to access more information systems and data. They then consolidate the information they seek in a centralized location. Finally, they stage a DDoS attack (where the attacker floods the server with internet traffic to prevent legitimate users from accessing the services and website) to distract the host system as they stealthily steal the information without detection.

Inside threats

Sabotage and social engineering attacks are used to get people “on the inside” of government and military organizations. Waring nations and hackers are taking advantage of government or military employees through blackmail or social engineering attacks to access systems and data from the inside. To help mitigate this risk, you need systems administrators, cybersecurity experts, and technology to monitor your digital spaces for abnormal system access and security patterns.

Rapid response protocols

As with any cyber theft, fast reaction and time to resolution are critical to minimizing risk. The military relies on highly experienced cybersecurity specialists to create secure systems, monitor for threats, and initiate pre-strategized rapid response protocols when an attack is discovered. These experts are also relied on to close the attacker's entry points to minimize data loss and cut off system access before additional damage can occur.

These threats are ever-evolving as hackers develop new ways to penetrate company systems. This means your cybersecurity experts need to stay up-to-date on the latest strategies and technology as well as develop dynamic responses to deal with any attack or threat that comes their way.

Discover how you can play a pivotal role in addressing military cyber defence challenges like these by speaking with our Advisors about your career trajectory.

Emerging technologies in military cybersecurity

To help mitigate cybersecurity threats, the military is implementing promising new technologies and cybersecurity strategies:

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)

Using the vast capabilities of artificial intelligence, military organizations are using AI to:

• Detect threats and responses: AI efficiently analyzes large amounts of data to detect cyber threats in real-time, a task virtually impossible for manual, human-powered analysis.
• Cyber attack prevention: AI proactively monitors military and infrastructure systems. It searches for vulnerabilities so your cybersecurity team can more quickly and accurately identify and mitigate risks.
• Create strategy and training: AI can create cyber threat scenarios for professionals to keep their skills up to date and learn about new threats.

Machine learning is how AI uses mathematical models and data to learn without being directly instructed. It enables computer systems to “learn” on their own.

Military organizations can use machine learning to independently detect patterns and deviations from regular network activity (e.g., an attack). ML efficiently identifies anomalies in large amounts of data and presents these time-sensitive reports in real-time.

Blockchain

Blockchain is a peer-to-peer system that connects multiple devices in a communication network. It helps improve the trustworthiness of communications between devices (such as verifying drone access through specific individuals or command and control centers). It prevents third parties from sending or receiving communications between connected devices and technology.

Zero trust

Previously, network security assumed that users could be trusted if they worked within the network perimeter. However, because third parties can penetrate network perimeters, this is no longer an effective strategy for military organizations. Zero trust assumes “Never trust. Always Verify” and ensures that all users are authenticated prior to accessing data or systems within the network. We expect to see more organizations following the lead of military security and implementing the Zero Trust protocol to secure their systems.

Understanding AI, ML, blockchain, and other emerging technologies is essential for success in a cybersecurity career for the military.

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The importance of cybersecurity training and awareness

Cybersecurity specialists are essential to safeguarding the data and secrets of our military and governmental organizations. Due to the rapid growth of new cybersecurity threats, these experts need ongoing training and situational awareness to respond to and mitigate risk.

Keep pace with the latest cyber threats and defence tactics with the Lighthouse Labs Cybersecurity Bootcamp. This program is designed to help cybersecurity professionals reskill or upskill for careers in today’s military cybersecurity teams. Students learn the fundamental theories and get hands-on experience in network security, incident response, forensics, encryption, threat detection engineering, and more — all necessary skills to safeguard our nation's military secrets and infrastructure.

If you have basic military training, you already have a challenge-inspired and goal-oriented mindset. This is essential to a successful career in cybersecurity in the military. You’re given an important goal (protecting military networks), and you’ll work with discipline to keep your skills up to date to achieve that goal to the best of your ability.

George Al-Koura, CISO at Ruby, says, “It’s the military advantage: discipline and reliability.” These are skills that a military background or time in the Cybersecurity Bootcamp at Lighthouse Labs gives you.

Contribute to national security by equipping yourself with cutting-edge cybersecurity skills.