Pentagon & DHS Working on Cybersecurity Pilot Program

The Pentagon, along with counterparts from the Department of Homeland Security, are working a new joint effort to protect a number of defense industry networks from cyberattacks.

In the program, DoD and DHS computer security specialists are working with the “tier one internet service providers” to transition a number of the cybersecurity measures already in place within those departments to various defense industry firms, according to U.S. Cyber Command chief Army Gen. Keith Alexander. “Government traffic and critical infrastructure traffic can be segregated in those areas and protected by those companies easiest, and our ability to work with them and classify the environment to ensure they have the signatures and stuff is probably the technically quickest way to go and the best way to go,” Alexander said of the program during his testimony before the House Armed Services emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee.

With roughly 30 defense companies currently involved in the program, known as the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), the CYBERCOM commander noted that the lessons learned under it could be leveraged into a larger, government-wide cybersecurity strategy. “That’s what the pilot [program] would do, [and] if we can do it for government the way the government is spread out, that would scale also to critical infrastructure if we deem it necessary to do those as well,” the four-star general said.

Coupled with the DIB effort, the Pentagon is also participating in a multi-agency evaluation of “critical cybersecurity issues” that cut across defense, intelligence and industry lines, Alexander said.

Source Defense Daily