Under a new plan put in place late last year, the head of U.S. Cyber Command received expanded authorities, but Fifth Domain has learned Congress and the Department of Defense have considered further extending those powers.

The discussion, which included members of the Joint Staff, comes as Cyber Command is expected to become a full combatant command.

While Cyber Command is often thought of as replicating the constructs of Special Operations Command, the commander of USCYBERCOM — unlike the commander of SOCOM — did not possess the authority to move cyber forces around the globe.

Instead, the commander of SOCOM can move special operations forces around the world based on demands and particular theaters. With its global reach and small staff cells located at each geographic combatant command, SOCOM can be much more flexible to respond to threats around the world.

One of the advantages of these cells — theater special operations commands (TSOC) — is they are small and tend to have a strong understanding of what’s going on from a global and transregional level, Peter Haynes, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, told Fifth Domain. With this understanding, they can act as a connective tissue between seams in geographic regions and anticipate which threats may need more resources.

Leaders in Congress and at the Pentagon have examined replicating this authority for Cyber Command.

https:// www

.fifthdomain.com/dod/cybercom/2018/02/28/cyber-command-granted-new-and-expanded-authorities/

The personal information of thousands of Marines, sailors and civilians, including bank account numbers, was compromised in a major data spillage emanating from U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve.

Roughly 21,426 people were impacted when an unencrypted email with an attachment containing personal confidential information was sent to the wrong email distribution list Monday morning.

The compromised attachment included highly sensitive data such as truncated social security numbers, bank electronic funds transfer and bank routing numbers, truncated credit card information, mailing address, residential address and emergency contact information, Maj. Andrew Aranda, spokesman for Marine Forces Reserve said in a command release.

https:// www

.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/02/28/major-data-breach-at-marine-forces-reserve-impacts-thousands/