Security News > 2021 > September > Computer and data scientists should be as highly regarded as 'warriors' says top UK cybergeneral
Military computer scientists ought to be treated with the same regard as pilots and warship captains, the head of the Army's cyber command has said.
The general, head of the Ministry of Defence's Strategic Command which oversees military hacking units, told the conference he wanted "Equal value and afford equal status" to computer scientists and "Cyber operators", putting them on the same platform as the Army's "Traditional warrior elite".
Coining a new word that prompted an outbreak of mickey-taking on Twitter, General Sanders said the MoD should be developing "Penta-phibians", using a mashup of Latin and Greek to describe an Army officer who could operate in what military theory sees as the five main domains of military action: land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.
The dastardly duo of nations aren't alone; in November the worst-kept secret in UK cyber policy, the National Cyber Force, was formally announced to the world.
Its remit is to go out and hack other nation states, doing so under a strict veil of secrecy; so far the only active hacking the UK has admitted to carrying out was targeted against the Islamic State terror group.
Whether these moves are part of a genuine shift towards embedding technical expertise into the British military, or more window dressing as specialist personnel get pushed out of posts while clueless generalists score a career-enhancing project management tickbox, will play out over the next few years.