Army Gen. Keith Alexander, US Cyber Command boss, gave the Defense Department a “C” grade on Wednesday when asked during a Congressional oversight hearing how he’d judge the Pentagon’s ability to protect its thousands of networks from attack. “We have made tremendous progress over the last two years in training the force and hardening the networks. I’d like to say an ‘A,’ but I think it will take us some time to get to an ‘A,'” Alexander told the House Armed Services Committee’s emerging threats and capabilities panel. A top grade will happen only when the Pentagon can stop everyone from penetrating the networks, Alexander said. However, he acknowledged “we’ve already made it extremely hard for anyone to break through our network.” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said during the hearing it’s going to take “a lot more money” before the Pentagon will find itself on the dean’s list. “It’s the welfare of the people that’s at stake,” Johnson said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…