AF leaders gather for Task Force Cyber Secure kickoff

WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Air Force senior leaders from across Headquarters Air Force and major commands gathered May 18-20 at the Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia, to attend the Task Force Cyber Secure kickoff meeting.

The task force was established to address challenges within the cyberspace domain and to synchronize efforts to improve the security of information and warfighting systems across the Air Force enterprise. It has been officially underway since Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III approved the task force memorandum on March 20.

The three-day meeting began with opening remarks from Lt. Gen. William Bender, the secretary of the Air Force chief of information dominance and chief information officer, thanking the participants for their efforts to advance the goals of TFCS. Over the course of the meeting, leaders presented current and future cybersecurity efforts in their respective areas of expertise.

“The meeting produced significant action items to move the task force forward,” said Peter Kim, the TFCS director. Included in this list was the identification of TFCS inject points into strategy, planning and programming process (SP3) for fiscal year 2018. The mapping of TFCS processes and expected outcomes to SP3 will be conducted along with the identification of key milestones in preparation for the fiscal 2018 program objective memorandum.

“The task force kickoff meeting was critical to task force activities,” Kim said. “It provided a much needed opportunity for Air Force-wide synchronization of efforts and knowledge sharing among the attendees.”

With 10 months remaining in its lifecycle, the task force is ultimately expected to provide a prioritized Air Force roadmap of cybersecurity efforts, identify potential investments and Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership, Personnel, Facilities and Policy (DOTMLPF-P) changes, and develop an enduring enterprise-wide cybersecurity governance framework by April 2016.