US speeds up acquisition of cyber weapons

Washington, April 11 (ANI): The US is preparing to accelerate the acquisition of new cyber weapons, which would giving them the ability to use them against specific targets, according to a new Pentagon report.

The 16-page report said that the rapid acquisition process was designed to respond to 'urgent, mission-critical' needs when the risk to operations and personnel was unacceptable.

The Congress had asked the Pentagon to prepare a report on how it could hasten the acquisition of cyber weapons.

The result, which builds on last year's defence strategy for cyberspace, puts the Pentagon's two-year-old Cyber Command in charge of a new registry of weapons that would catalogue their capabilities and where they are stored.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the report also describes a new level of department-wide oversight with the establishment of a Cyber Investment Management Board, chaired by senior Pentagon officials.

The board will help to ensure military and intelligence cyber authorities were well coordinated.

The new framework will set up two systems for cyber weapons development: rapid and deliberate.(ANI)