Establishing standards to better identify and understand cyber threats is a critical global security issue, the head of the US Navy's Cyber Command told Sputnik.

"I think the issue right now is that we have not gotten to a place where we've established an agreed upon set of cyber-norms, norms of behavior in cyberspace, since none of us are operating off an established game plan," US Navy Vice Adm. Jan E. Tighe said, responding to a question about cyber issues that threaten global security.

Without establishing such norms it is impossible to determine what constitutes espionage, theft or acts of war, Tighe explained. As a result, she said, "it tends to be sort of the 'Wild Wild West' out there."

Tighe spoke at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank. Fleet Cyber Command is the Navy's operational authority for cyber, networks, cryptologic/signals intelligence, information operations, electronic warfare, and space capabilities.