The State of Cyber Resilience: Now and in the Future

Abstract

The Department of Defense has dealt with a multiplicity of threats throughout its history, including espionage and insider threats, as well as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive threats. As the department has increasingly incorporated cyber components into weapons and supporting systems in recent decades, threats from cyberattack have taken their place alongside these existing threats. At the same time, traditional cyber defenses designed to keep cyber invaders out of our systems have not always proven effective. This article discusses cyber resilience as a means for helping to ensure mission survivability despite adverse events in cyber. The article covers the state of cyber today, why cyber can be so vulnerable, and how resilience techniques can complement traditional cyber defenses to help ensure the larger mission. The article concludes with a discussion of cyber and cyber resilience in the future.