By Franz-Stefan Gady
CIA director John Brennan considers creating a new cyber directorate in Langley.
The Washington Post reports that CIA director, John Brennan, is considering a major expansion of the CIA’s cyber espionage capabilities. Unnamed official sources claim that the director and his team are even considering creating a new cyber directorate and making it a separate pillar next to the traditional analysis and operations branches.
“Brennan is trying to update the agency to make sure it is prepared to tackle the challenges in front of it. I just don’t think you can separate the digital world people operate in from the human intelligence,” an official familiar with the re-organization notes.
This is yet another sign that cyberspace is increasingly moving to the center of American national security deliberations. The White House also recently announced that it will create a new office, the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, which will be part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The fiscal year 2016 budget request by President Barack Obama asked for $16 billion in overall expenditure for cybersecurity; the Pentagon spends around $5 billion on cyber defense and its cyber arsenal per year.
Read the full story at The Diplomat