The general public does not and usually will never be able to know the extent of America's cyber successes versus its adversaries, Principal Cyber Advisor to the Secretary of the Army Brandon Pugh told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview during a visit to Israel.
Pugh is due to speak at the Cyber Week conference at Tel Aviv University on Tuesday and Wednesday, but just prior to his public appearances there, he spoke to the Post about artificial intelligence-led cyber wars, combining cyber and electromagnetic tools for troops in the field, and how protecting civilian infrastructure is critical to the US armed forces.
With China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran frequently staging cyber attacks against the US, the West, and Israel, and Beijing in particular having had some notable public successes, such as its Volt Typhoon hack, Pugh said that the US is doing very well against its adversaries, but is often careful not to reveal its successes.
In fact, some of America's best cyber successes, even the adversaries may not know about to this day in terms of how fully they are penetrated by US hackers or how thoroughly American military cyber defenders are tracking attempts by hostile actors to penetrate Washington's cyber defenses.
A major topic for Pugh is the Army’s "Continuous Transformation."
During one of Pugh's visits with American troops, he observed up close demonstrations by expeditionary firing crews in action.
These five-person teams are capable of delivering strategic cyber effects in support of theater-level objectives, combining cyber operations and electromagnetic warfare in ways never used before.
'A once-in-a-generation change of the army'
Pugh told the Post regarding continuous transformation that, “US Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff General Randy George are leading a once-in-a-generation change of the army, which could mean a lot."
"The army does a lot well. But where will cyber take us in the future? Their focus on cyber is one of the five top priorities, and electronic warfare is also one of the five. I have two of the top five priorities in my portfolio. Conflict continues to evolve, and technology is a huge portion of that. It is not the be-all and end-all solution, but it should be in consideration…in conjunction with other tools in conflict," he said.
The army's cyber chief is committed to putting the right technology in the hands of soldiers in the field at a much more rapid pace than in the past to strengthen readiness for the future battlefield.
The US military's 11th Battalion is accelerating its "Small Unmanned Aircraft System Training Program" and now leads efforts to rapidly produce drone teams.
Now that the 11th Battalion has the authority to directly and cost-effectively acquire drones under 55 pounds, it equips forces to execute electromagnetic reconnaissance and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions worldwide.
A large part of these new projects is education and seeking to attract and draft individuals with unique skill sets.
"The army's senior leaders are really leaning in and embracing technology…We need to get it into the hands of soldiers quickly. We also just need to make sure we have the right formations, the right trained individuals to carry out [missions]. It is all about people…not just equipment," said Pugh.
Moreover, he noted that, "Often, individuals with unique skill sets could go to the private sector to make more money. But the military has the mission and knowing you can contribute to your country and much quicker than you might [make a difference] on the outside," is an important part of recruiting technology-leaning talented individuals.
To attract and retain such tech-wizards, the US Army sometimes uses different levels of pay according to levels of mastery as opposed to set pay scales based on age or length of time in the military. For example, individuals could jump to being a senior operator or a master operator, rank up from lower operator ranks.
In addition, he said that many individuals are serving in reserve duty, which allows them to still make more money in their full-time job, while sharing their knowledge and value with the military on the side.
Pugh emphasized that defending the homeland is a top priority, and that the Army has a direct stake because vulnerabilities in privately owned critical infrastructure — from power grids to transportation networks — can affect Army installations and unit mobilization.
He pointed to assessments by the Army Cyber Institute at the US Military Academy at West Point that examine how infrastructure weaknesses could disrupt the Army’s ability to project forces in crisis or conflict. “We need to be able to mobilize forces and equipment at a moment’s notice,” he said.
"Protecting our national security and homeland are top priorities for this administration, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary Driscoll. In the national security strategy," there is a focus on 'resilience for national infrastructure. Cyber is key to that," said the army cyber chief.
He noted that bad actors, whether they be nation states or criminal enterprises, are not just going after the US, but also are going after American partners and allies.
Next, he explained that the army has 288 stations, which means that a cyber attack that could impact infrastructure, including civilian infrastructure to which the military is often connected, could harm military readiness on an extremely wide basis.
Having critical infrastructure like electricity, water, transportation, and communications is "not a matter of convenience," but rather, he said, a major civilian infrastructure hack could massively "interfere with mobilization at a time of conflict."
"We are very focused on the defense of infrastructure. We can take all efforts as an army to help military bases. It’s a team sport. I have to work with interagency partners and the private sector, including private operators," stated Pugh.
An issue that has been widely reported in the news is that over one-third of the US Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been cut by the Trump administration.
Pugh was careful not to weigh in on the politics relating to the issue, but he suggested that the broader term of American cyber defenders for defending civilian infrastructure was sufficient.
"Our workforce is both military and civilian. We mostly discuss the military, but our civilian counterparts are essential. In the long term, many of our former military people come back, or have relations with the US Cyber Command, but are still army employees," he said, noting that this creates a wider group to carry the cyber defense burden.
He added, "We want to be as quick and as smooth as possible. We don’t want to lose talent," emphasizing that the army and public sector have sped up hiring processes to ensure they will have sufficient cyber defenders at all times.
Returning to China, the Volt Typhoon hack, and the question of whether the US may get outplayed by Beijing in the realm of AI-based cyber attacks, Pugh responded, "Adversaries and bad actors are going to leverage AI no matter what our policy limits are or what we do. So we should leverage AI for defense and have an advantage."
Next, he stated, "The US is doing a very good job, but there is always room to strengthen leveraging AI against our adversaries. We have had tremendous successes. Humans with AI have caught vulnerabilities that a human alone might have missed. The army, as well as cyber command, is putting resources behind AI."
He concluded, "Our adversaries intend to leverage cyber against us and our allies. It’s a no-fail mission."