China's cyberattacks can cripple US defence productions, warns Pentagon official

America's adversaries, including China, often direct cyberattacks on the defense industrial base, a senior Pentagon official pointed out. Such attacks can affect production lines and even shut them down, John Garstka, director for Cyber Warfare within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Platform and Weapon Portfolio Management, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. said.

Calling cyberspace the fifth warfighting domain, he said such attacks on on the defense industrial base (DIB) can impact real-world missions of the US department of defence.

"We are not talking about hypotheticals here. If you are dependent on the DIB for operations of your space systems, you have to treat protecting the DIB as important as protecting the space system, space segment or ground segment," he said.

Garstka is responsible for overseeing the development and acquisition of capabilities for cyberspace operations and implementation of the strategic cybersecurity programme of the department of defence.

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According to him, many people fail to understand the impact of cyber conflict as they don't have access to simulations of such attacks and the subsequent effects.

"What we have learned (from our wargaming) is that this is a significant threat that we have to prepare the joint force to deal with," a US defence department release quoted him as saying.

He said the department is focusing on the infrastructure necessary for supporting space systems missions to counter such cyber threats. Proper risk assessment is also an essential element of dealing with cyberthreats, and such assessments must cover the entire life cycle of the system rather than just the operation and sustainment phases, Garstka pointed out.

Defence