U.S. Air Force designates six cyber tools as weapons

 Six cyber tools have been designated as weapons by the U.S. Air Force, allowing the programs to better compete for increasingly scarce Pentagon funding, an Air Force official said on Monday.

Lt. Gen. John Hyten, vice commander of Air Force Space Command, told a cyber conference held in conjunction with the National Space Symposium that the new designations would boost the profile of the military's cyber operations as countries grapple with attacks originating from the Internet.

"This means that the game-changing capability that cyber is going to get more attention and the recognition that it deserves," Hyten told conference attendees, according to a Reuters account of the speech. "It's very, very hard to compete for resources ... You have to be able to make that case." Hyten, who said the Air Force was working to integrate cyber capabilities with other weapons, offered no details on the new cyber weapons.