DOD's nuclear posture review includes tougher cyber defenses

The Pentagon's updated Nuclear Posture Review includes steps for strengthening the military's cyber defenses, as President Trump is calling for an increase in spending to modernize the nation's nuclear arsenal, Inside Cybersecurity reports:

"The emergence of offensive cyber warfare capabilities has created new challenges and potential vulnerabilities" for the nuclear command, control and communications system, with potential adversaries "expending considerable effort to design and use cyber weapons against networked systems," according to the posture review released Friday.

The revised strategy cites emerging threats such as cyber attacks while singling out Russia, China and North Korea as potential bad actors.

"The United States will protect NC3 components against current and future cyber threats and ensure the continuing availability of U.S.-produced information technology necessary for the NC3 system," according to the document which is expected to guide the Pentagon's spending decisions.

"There now exists an unprecedented range and mix of threats, including major conventional, chemical, biological, nuclear, space, and cyber threats, and violent non-state actors," the review says. "These developments have produced increased uncertainty and risk."

Russia, China and North Korea are "engaged in increasingly aggressive behavior in outer space and cyber space" and the new strategy responds to "a rapidly shifting environment with significant future uncertainty."

Check out Inside Defense's coverage so far of the Nuclear Posture Review:

DOD's new nuclear strategy lowers yield on SLBMs, re-establishes sea-launched cruise missile

NPR calls for rapid development of nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile