jp3_12r

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
COMMANDER’S OVERVIEW
• Introduces cyberspace and its integration into joint operations.
• Explains cyberspace operations and their relationship to joint functions.
• Covers authorities, roles, and responsibilities.
• Discusses planning and coordination of cyberspace operations.
Introduction
Cyberspace operations (CO)
are the employment of
cyberspace capabilities where
the primary purpose is to
achieve objectives in or
through cyberspace.
Cyberspace
Cyberspace, while a global
domain within the information
environment, is one of five
interdependent domains, the
others being the physical
domains of air, land, maritime,
and space.
Most aspects of joint operations rely in part on
cyberspace, the global domain within the information
environment consisting of the interdependent network of
information technology infrastructures and resident data,
including the Internet, telecommunications networks,
computer systems, and embedded processors and
controllers. Developments in cyberspace provide the
means for the US military, its allies, and partner nations
to gain and maintain a strategic, continuing advantage in
the operational environment (OE), and can be leveraged
to ensure the nation’s economic and physical security.
Access to the Internet provides adversaries the capability
to compromise the integrity of US critical infrastructures
in direct and indirect ways. These characteristics and
conditions present a paradox within cyberspace: the
prosperity and security of our nation have been
significantly enhanced by our use of cyberspace, yet
these same developments have led to increased
vulnerabilities and a critical dependence on cyberspace,
for the US in general and the joint force in particular.
Cyberspace consists of many different and often
overlapping networks, as well as the nodes (any device or
logical location with an Internet protocol address or other
analogous identifier) on those networks, and the system
data (such as routing tables) that support them.
Cyberspace can be described in terms of three layers:
physical network, logical network, and cyber-persona.
The physical network layer of cyberspace is comprised
of the geographic component and the physical network
components. It is the medium where the data travel. The
logical network layer consists of those elements of the
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