Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, the officer nominated by President Obama to head the US Cyber Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 15 that despite the “much uncharted territory in the world of cyber-policy, law and doctrine,” the cyber-warfare command will work to protect the privacy rights of Americans.

Created in 2009 by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, the Cyber Command is a subordinate cohesive command under the US Strategic Command, and aims at protecting Department of Defense networks as well as coordinating the cyber-warfare operations of the country.

Noting that critical computer networks at the Pentagon and military face cyber-attack threats several times every day, Alexandder, who is the present director of the National Security Agency (NSA), said: “We face a growing array of cyber-threats from foreign intelligence services, terrorists, criminal groups and individual hackers who are capable of stealing, manipulating or destroying information that could compromise our personal and national security.”

Alexander told the Committee members that, upon his confirmation, he would chiefly focus at making the country’s critical military operational networks secure – a move that will, in no way, imply attempts to “militarize cyberspace.”

Elaborating that primarily though the Department of Homeland Security will be responsible for handling the overseas-originated cyber-attacks on the country's utilities, making use of US computers; the Cyber Command would get involved in case the Department seeks its support.