Syracuse University School of Information Studies Adjunct Professor Dale Meyerrose commented on the appointment of the confirmation of Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander as the head of U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), the agency responsible for protecting the Department of Defense against cyber attacks.
“I think that Gen. Alexander is a great choice to be the first Cyber Commander,”
Meyerrose was quoted as saying in The New New Internet. “He understands this business and he is uniquely positioned to be somebody to set some of the initial precedents and work through the myriad of planning and execution issues that confront the Department of Defense.”
Alexander, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., and West Point graduate has served as the director of the National Security Agency and the Chief of the Central Security Service. As the Commander of USCYBERCOM, he will be responsible for managing forces for a network attack on the Department of Defense and the execution of a computer network defense directed by USSTRATCOM.
Meyerrose stressed that the USCYBERCOM is part of the Department of Defense and will have little impact on outside military defense contracts, which would be controlled by the individual branches.
Major General Meyerrose (retired U.S. Air Force) is frequently interviewed by major print and television media on national and international cybersecurity issues. He has more than three decades of military and government experience in cyber, communications, information technology, intelligence, command and control operations, and space support. Most recently, he was the first President-appointed, Senate-confirmed Chief Information Officer and Information Sharing Executive for the U.S. Intelligence Community in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He is currently vice president and general manager of cyber initiatives for Harris Corporation.