Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, who leads the Defense Intelligence Agency, has been appointed to serve as deputy commander at U.S. Cyber Command, according to a

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Cyber Command is nearing a series of important inflection points as a young organization – stoop up in 2009 and reaching full operational capability in 2010. Congress directed Cyber Command become a full unified combatant command, out from under Strategic Command where it sits right now.

Much attention has also been paid to the impending split between Cyber Command and NSA, which Cyber Command is currently co-located with.

When asked during a hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2016 if the U.S. has done enough to deter cyber aggression of potential adversaries, Stewart said; "I think most potential adversaries understand that we have a capability whether or not we are ready to use that because that's the essence of deterrence that an adversary actually feels that we'll use the capability that we have – I'm not sure we're there yet and that goes beyond our ability to understand and to counter its military capabilities."

He added; "I think there's another dimension of convincing from a policy standpoint that we're willing to use that capability."

Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.

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