WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will be launching new, regional cyber command structures in the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, DISA Vice Director Major General Sarah Zabel said.
"Very soon [we] will take a key step in the national mission and this is by standing up provisional DODIN [Department of Defense Intelligence Network] commands outside of Ft. Meade," Zabel said at a defense-IT conference outside of Washington, DC on Wednesday.
The command relationship will be coordinated between the US Cyber Command, headquartered in Fort Meade, and a new cyber defense agency the Joint Force Headquarters – Department of Defense Information Networks, or JFHQ-DoDIN.
"This will be a command relationship whereby US Cyber Command through JFHQ-DoDIN reaches out to the regional areas," Zabel said.
The new commands, she added, will be capable of directing the functioning and responses of "many different entities" operating in a particular geographic location.
Up until the recent creation of the JFHQ-DoDIN in January, US Cyber Command was responsible for defending against external cyberattacks against the United States, and securing the Defense Department's internal network. The new command structure is now focused entirely on internal network security and facilitating interoperability.