Coast Guard to Establish Cyber Operational Assessments Branch

The Coast Guard plans to upgrade its cybersecurity blue team branch to a dedicated Cyber Operational Assessments Branch that also includes a red team.

Blue and red teams are made up of defensive and offensive cybersecurity professionals, respectively, tasked with simulating cyber attacks to identify gaps in security.

Starting later in the summer, the CoastGuard will have its own red team responsible for cyberattack emulation and penetration testing, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

The blue team branch will continue providing endpoint scanning, cooperative vulnerability assessments and security consultancy, according to the team’s chief.

Lt. Kenneth Miltenberger said the new Cyber Operational Assessments Branch will be tasked with identifying challenges and opportunities in the Department of Defense’s 5G buildout.

DOD officials see 5G as a key cybersecurity consideration because of how much it can enable internet of things devices and increase a network’s attack surface.

The Pentagon recently awarded GE Research $36 million in contracts to create 5G-enabled smart warehouses at the Naval Base San Diego in California and Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany in Georgia.

The high speeds and low latency of 5G technology also enable new applications such as augmented reality platforms.

Taqtile, a spatial computing technology company, recently announced that it partnered with Booz Allen Hamilton to demonstrate a 5G-enabled AR solution at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Taqtile said its plans to use its Manifest AR platform to test the security and resilience of 5G networks and the advanced capabilities of AR and virtual reality. Manifest was designed to serve as a digital archive for maintenance and repair information.