EASTOVER, S.C. - Passion, drive, and motivation.
These are the necessary qualities for a Soldier or Airman to successfully participate as a member of the South Carolina National Guard’s Computer Network Defense Team (CND-T). These traits far outweigh any certifications, degrees or experience in the civilian sector, according to three experts organizing efforts to increase awareness of the team and its capabilities.
Master Sgt. Leo Kane, CND-T noncommissioned officer-in-charge of information operations, Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Chapman, CND-T non-commissioned officer-in-charge of operations, and Warrant Officer Candidate James Billingsley, CND-T network analyst, joined a round-table discussion at the McCrady Training Center in Eastover, South Carolina, May 28, 2015, to explain the unique role of the CND-T in the S.C. National Guard and how it exists to serve Guard commanders, as well as partnered agencies throughout the state of South Carolina.
“The benefits that the team provides to the citizens of South Carolina boils down to visibility and capability,” said Chapman. “Who’s watching the bad guys and what are we doing about it. The National Guard is a community-based organization, which is most profound during times of distress. Today we have a team of 16 Soldiers that are ready to respond to any incident that occurs on the cyber scale.” This could be anything from a simple phishing attempt to a large-scale cyber attack causing destruction to a physical structure.
The CND-T has existed in its current configuration for approximately three years, having 16 Soldiers officially slotted as a part of team, in addition to other Soldiers and Airmen throughout the South Carolina National Guard that contribute to the team and participate in their training and exercises. The S.C. National Guard has invested approximately $1 million in the training and certification of the team.
Chapman pointed out that a deployment of the team during a cyber event could provide drastic cost saving and cost avoidance measures to any state agency or organization. This would include an initial triage and analysis to determine the scale and source of the attack, with forensics being one of the team’s primary capabilities.
“We are also moving in the future toward offering to equip government agencies with an audit capability, which will give leaders an economical method of determining where their organization stands in terms of the cyber security framework that they adopt and how well their controls are in place,” said Chapman.
The team frequently participates in awareness campaigns, which includes speaking engagements, classes, and other educational opportunities on how individuals and groups can best protect themselves in the current cyber domain.
Although it’s common to think of a cyber attack in terms of the loss of personally identifiable information, one of the biggest concerns is the possibility of suffering damage to a physical structure or system directly as a result of a cyber event.
“In the last couple of years the biggest worry has been the cyber to kinetic effect, whereby you take a computer and cause a real world disaster,” said Billingsley. “An example would be a dam that overflows as a result of a physical component failing to do what it needed to do. Through cyber influence, you can cause a physical element to fail and not do its job anymore. A lot of the exercises we do are centered around protecting real world physical structures that reside in the National Critical Infrastructure from a cyber attack.”
Chapman agreed. “A lot of our effort, energy, and resources is going into understanding the cyber to kinetic threat and determining what type of mitigations we can put in place for those threats,” he said.
Kane also emphasized the significance of a kinetic cyber threat. “If it’s touching a component of a connected network, it can be breached in some form or fashion,” said Kane.
In addition to outside organizations, the CND-T can provide a huge benefit to commanders throughout the S.C. National Guard whenever an interested Soldier or Airman is allowed to either interview for the team or participate in their training and exercises.
According to Billingsley, one such benefit is preparing participating Soldiers for the 25D Cyber Network Defender Military Occupational Specialty. The S.C. Army National Guard has in its ranks the first ever reserve component Soldier to successfully obtain the 25D MOS.
“This is a very procedurally intensive MOS to get,” said Billingsley. “You need certain baseline certifications just to qualify. We can bring one of their Soldiers on board for a given period of time and give them the baseline training that they’ll need to succeed in that class. It helps them to improve their security posture by providing us with Soldiers.”
“Eventually the Soldier or Airman will rotate back to their unit,” said Billingsley. “They’re here to help with the mission and to gain a skill.”
All three agreed that a member should stay with the team for a three-to-five year rotation in order to obtain the desired skill level. They advised that it takes the initial two years on the team to get them fully qualified.
“The Soldiers that we gain from the brigades will receive initial operational capability at the tactical, operational, and strategic level,” said Chapman. “When they go back to that brigade, they’ll be able to see the full-spectrum of operations as it applies to cyber.”
The CND-T leadership are not as worried about an applicants previous level of experience as they are about their level of passion, drive and motivation.
“If you are passionate, if you are self-driven, if you’re a highly motivated Soldier or Airman, then we will train you,” said Chapman. “We have the assets and resources at our disposal to get all the certifications and do the things that look good on paper.”
Kane pointed out that the passion and drive are needed for self-study and research in order to succeed on the team. As it’s an obvious benefit to be someone who works in the cyber field for a living, it’s not a discriminator for a new team member as long as they do some of the training on their own.
Although the team participates in a number of training events throughout the year, the most important of these is Cyber Guard. According to recent U.S. Cyber Command news release, Cyber Guard is a two-week exercise designed to test operational and interagency coordination as well as tactical-level operations to protect, prevent, mitigate and recover from a domestic cyberspace incident.
“Cyber Guard is where we validate,” said Chapman. “That’s where we prove to U.S. Cyber Command and the National Guard Bureau that we meet their mission essential tasks under federal mandates.”
In addition to preparing for and participating in Cyber Guard, the CND-T is continually reaching out to provide support to partner agencies and organizations, as well as recruiting and training new team members.
The CND-T is always on the lookout for talent, and they need quality enlisted people, according to Chapman.
“We want commanders to understand the vision of the CND -T, its capabilities and what we can do for them,” said Chapman. “We’ll train their best and brightest and give them right back to them.”