5 Key Cybersecurity Takeaways from AFCEA WEST 2025

Cyber warfare is no longer a future threat—it’s happening now. Every day, adversaries refine their tactics, leveraging AI, automation, and advanced cyber tools to exploit vulnerabilities faster than ever before. The battlefield is constantly shifting, and complacency is not an option. To maintain dominance, we must evolve at the speed of the threat—adopting proactive, mission-ready cybersecurity strategies that ensure resilience in an unpredictable digital battlespace.

At AFCEA WEST 2025, military and industry leaders tackled these urgent challenges, sharing critical insights into the future of defense cybersecurity.

Here are five key takeaways shaping the cyber battlespace—and how we must adapt to stay ahead.

1. Speed & Agility in Cyber Defense Are Non-Negotiable

At AFCEA WEST, Vice Adm. Karl Thomas reinforced a critical truth: the U.S. military must deploy disruptive capabilities faster than its adversaries. The rapid evolution of cyber threats and real-world lessons from Ukraine highlights the need for real-time intelligence and secure, high-speed information sharing.

• Mission Imperative: Speed is a warfighting advantage. The Navy prioritizes rapidly adopting emerging technologies, ensuring warfighters can respond at machine speed to evolving threats—leveraging AI, automation, and secure data transfer to maintain decision superiority.
• Supporting the Mission:
  Owl’s high-speed cross-domain solutions (CDS) provide real-time, secure data transfer between networks of varying classification levels—ensuring warfighters get the intelligence they need when needed. Whether operating in an enterprise setting or a forward-deployed environment, our solutions enable decision-makers to access critical information without introducing cyber risk.

2. Cyber & Kinetic Warfare Must Be Integrated

Modern conflicts prove that cyber, electronic warfare and kinetic operations must work as one. Ukraine’s innovative use of unmanned systems, electronic warfare, and coastal defense cruise missiles has reshaped the battlefield. The U.S. military is now adapting its doctrine to ensure cyber operations are fully integrated into multi-domain operations.

• Mission Imperative: Adversaries leverage cyber tactics before, during, and after kinetic engagements. Warfighters need secure, real-time intelligence sharing and resilient cyber defenses to operate in contested environments.

• Supporting the Mission:
  Owl’s tactical CDS solutions provide secure, one-way intelligence transfer in high-threat environments—ensuring warfighters can access mission-critical data without exposure to cyber threats. Our technology is designed for deployed forces, forward-operating bases, and real-time situational awareness, ensuring seamless cyber-kinetic integration.

3. AI is Reshaping Cyber Operations

AI is no longer theoretical—it is actively transforming cyber warfare. At WEST 2025, defense leaders emphasized AI’s role in enhancing threat detection, automating response, and predicting cyberattacks before they occur.

But there’s a growing concern: China is rapidly advancing AI-driven cyber tactics—and the U.S. must move just as fast.

• Mission Imperative: AI-powered cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, requiring automated defenses that evolve in real time. Warfighters need resilient AI-driven security solutions that can detect, isolate, and neutralize threats at the speed of battle.
• Supporting the Mission:
  Owl’s high-assurance data transfer solutions feed secure, real-time intelligence to AI-driven cyber defense platforms—enabling predictive threat analysis without exposing classified networks. Whether securing AI analytics in cloud environments or supporting edge computing for deployed forces, Owl ensures mission success through uncompromising data integrity.

4. Data-Centric Security is the Future

The Marine Corps is shifting toward data-centric security, ensuring that protection follows the data rather than relying solely on traditional perimeter defenses. In modern contested environments, networks will be disrupted—securing the data itself is the only way to guarantee mission continuity.

• Mission Imperative: Adversaries target data at rest, in transit, and use. The military needs Zero Trust architecture and secure data transfer mechanisms that protect mission-critical intelligence, regardless of network status.
• Supporting the Mission in a Contested Cyber Environment:
  Owl’s CDS solutions provide secure, one-way data transfer, ensuring mission-critical information remains protected—even in degraded or high-risk conditions. Owl safeguards operational data integrity by supporting high-assurance intelligence sharing between coalition partners or ensuring warfighters can access ISR feeds in denied environments.

5  Cyber Talent is a National Security Priority

Technology alone won’t win future conflicts—highly skilled cyber professionals will. At WEST 2025, Vice Adm. Craig Clapperton highlighted the cyber talent crisis as one of the biggest threats to national security.

• Mission Imperative: The military must recruit, train, and retain top cyber talent to stay ahead of adversaries. Public-private partnerships and collaborations with industry and academia will be essential to building the next generation of cyber warriors.
• Supporting the Mission:
  Owl partners with defense agencies, cyber training academies, and military research institutions to equip cyber operators with advanced, mission-ready security solutions. By reducing operational complexity and delivering field-proven cyber defense technologies, we help prepare the cyber workforce for today’s and tomorrow’s battles.

What’s Next? Cyber Warfare is Evolving—We Must Evolve Faster

These insights from AFCEA WEST 2025 make one thing clear: cyber warfare is accelerating. Speed, integration, AI-driven defense, data security, and cyber talent development will define the future battlefield.

The military cannot do this alone; collaboration with industry is essential. Owl Cyber Defense delivers field-proven, mission-ready cybersecurity solutions that ensure warfighter effectiveness and protect defense infrastructure. Whether securing tactical communications, enabling high-speed intelligence sharing, or fortifying AI-driven cyber defenses, Owl is committed to securing the future battlefield.

AI is reshaping cyber warfare—are your networks secure?

Learn how Cross Domain Solutions protect AI-driven operations from cyber threats in our latest guide.

Securing AI with Cross Domain Solutions: A Guide for Defense Leaders