COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio will be a leader in protecting the nation’s military databases and information systems from cyberattack.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
The Ohio National Guard will become home this year to one of the first three Cyber Protection Teams authorized by the federal National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.
Made up of soldiers from Army National Guard units in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, the team will begin work this fall to support the military’s cyber defense efforts, said Maj. Gen. Mark Bartman, interim Ohio adjutant general.
The other two teams will be based in California and Georgia.
The country’s top military commanders have repeatedly said that cyber security is among the most-critical missions today.
“This particular mission is the wave of the future,” Bartman said. “These soldiers will work with other such teams to prevent vulnerabilities and to protect the nation’s military systems from attack.”
The Ohio team, to be in place by fall, will be made up of 14 National Guard soldiers from Ohio, 14 from Indiana and 11 from Michigan.
Their jobs, essentially, will be to protect the Department of Defense’s information systems and infrastructure and to support the U.S. Army’s Cyber Command at the federal level. The soldiers will undergo months of specialized training, Bartman said.
Maj. Earl Brown, a spokesman for the federal National Guard Bureau, said he couldn’t say much about the specifics that led to Ohio’s being chosen, because a competitive evaluation is still underway for seven more teams for the Army National Guard and four for the Air National Guard.
But Brown did say that the selection process included a review of each guard’s relationships with regional industries, research facilities and local universities, according to a report in the Columbus Dispatch. Where the guard geographically fits into its particular Federal Emergency Management Agency region also factored in, Brown said.
National Guard Bureau will establish four more teams during the 2017 federal fiscal year and the rest of the 10 that are planned in the 2018 fiscal year, Bartman said.
Bartman says the Ohio Guard boasts a large number of soldiers who work in the IT and academic sectors and who may offer expertise in “cutting-edge cyber defense policies, tactics and techniques.”