The Department of Defense (DoD) is rapidly moving forward into the cyber domain of warfare, but the United States Government is not ready to exploit this evolution in Civil-Military affairs. With the United States facing new threats to its national security at home and abroad like never before, U.S. policy and law must change to enable DoD to fully defend and fight in cyberspace. Due to the highly automated and interconnected nature of U.S. critical infrastructure, it is not practical to erect a barrier between military and civilian operations that can serve U.S. national interests. Within the interagency framework, DoD should serve as the lead, including the response phase whenever defense critical infrastructure is involved or when a cyber attack has seriously affected other national critical infrastructure. To enable this transformation, the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) should be amended or rescinded so DoD can conduct full defensive and offensive cyberspace operations against all required targets.
