Signal Pentagon's Defense Cyber Defense Command Drafting Critical Infrastructure Protection Framework

Summary

The Defense Cyber Defense Command (DCDC) was elevated to a sub-unified command under US Cyber Command in May 2025, a move originally proposed in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. Col. Adolph Rodriguez, DCDC's director of Defense Critical Infrastructure, told Breaking Defense at the TechNet Cyber conference that his mission is to build a "framework and command and control footprint" clarifying authority among CISA, the FBI, the Coast Guard and the Department of War. Rodriguez said he wants an enduring cyber campaign plan modeled on FEMA/NORTHCOM's disaster-response structure so existing infrastructure and civil-defense muscle memory can be reused rather than rebuilt. The effort responds to Chinese state-linked hackers dubbed Volt Typhoon, found lurking in US critical infrastructure networks in what officials describe as a shift from espionage toward holding infrastructure at risk. Not all experts endorse the proposed structure; Piero Tozzi of the America First Policy Institute argued NORTHCOM and Cyber Command, not CISA, should lead given the risk of escalation to kinetic conflict. Military cyber structures are thus extending explicitly into the defense of civilian infrastructure networks.