Military looks to Cyber Florida for help tackling online attacks

TAMPA, Fla. - The U.S. military is looking for help with cyber attacks, so defense commanders are tapping the best minds on the latest cybersecurity research at local universities, including Cyber Florida at the University of South Florida.

The way of war has moved to digital spaces, and the recent cyber attack in Ukraine is just the latest example.

"Where does prepping the cyber battlefield begin? So we're seeing that in the Ukraine, that's the Russian way of war. They often start their kinetic attacks, crossing the border with tanks and troops, with cyber attacks, shutting down systems, making command and control difficult," said Ron Sanders, the staff director at Cyber Florida: The Florida Center for Cybersecurity.

Sanders said those are the kinds of attacks his researchers will help fight against with the U.S. military.

USF is one of about 80 universities chosen to join the military’s U.S. Cyber Command in an academic engagement network this year.

"They have tremendous talent, but they don't know all of the answers, and it's a credit to them that they're reaching out to the academic world," said Sanders. "There are lots of scholars doing lots of research in Florida and elsewhere that is either directly or indirectly relevant to some of the missions that Cyber Command has."

U.S. Cyber Command handles a variety of security concerns for the country, ranging from defense systems to network hacking and more. Sanders detailed how the military handles cyber defense.

"Let's take our elections. On the defensive side of this is to protect voting machines, social media to make sure that misinformation or disinformation is countered. That's all sort of the defensive side of it. And there are lots of people, including the Department of Homeland Security, that worry about defense. But defense isn't all there is to it. So one of the things that Cyber Command does is ‘defend forward.’ So they'll go to the people who are promulgating that misinformation and disinformation. They'll go to the source, and they'll try to shut them down. That's the offensive side of this," said Sanders. "They've done things like make sure that our elections are secure by preventing foreign interference in those elections, by reaching out to those foreigners and stopping them in their tracks."

Now the military will access to the latest research from their chosen universities, putting researchers to work on special projects. Sanders said getting a seat at the table is a rare privilege.

"A lot of war fighting is going to occur in cyberspace and a lot of getting ready for war fighting in cyberspace is what Cyber Command does, and what we hope to be able to help them with," said Sanders.

Cyber Florida said there’s no timeline for how long they will work with the military’s U.S. Cyber Command, but Sanders said researchers already got a taste of what to expect in a virtual meeting last week with the general. Florida Polytechnic University and University of West Florida round out the three Florida schools chosen for the cyber defense work.