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24 August 2014

DoD’s DISA To Undergo Cyber-Focused Restructure

August 22, 2014 

DISA to Undergo Cyber-Focused Restructure

DISA is likely to reorganize to take better advantage of its

collaboration with US CYBERCOM, says DISA Vice Director

MG Alan Lynn. (Barry Rosenberg/C4ISRNet)

Defense Department officials are considering a reorganization at Fort Meade, Maryland, that could restructure the Defense Information Systems Agency and other cybersecurity-focused military offices in a bid to better defend DoD networks.

Planning for the reorganization is in the early stages, but the goal is to create a more comprehensive defense strategy and to secure the DoD information network (DoDIN). The move would give greater oversight, visibility and authority to DISA, and would create a new joint force headquarters dedicated to DoD network defenses.

“We’re posturing the greater organization of DISA to be better prepared for what we see as our future,” MG Alan Lynn, DISA vice director, said at the annual Forecast to Industry held Aug. 20 at Fort Meade. “We’ve always been in the cyber business, and that business keeps increasing so we see ourselves more and more involved in that.”

DoD launching DISA cybersecurity joint task force

DISA searches for fit with evolving Cyber Command

Lynn said DISA is “in great collaboration” with Adm. Mike Rogers, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency. The planned reorganization will enable that collaboration to continue and expand, Lynn said.

DISA will not take over the networks of the military branches, said Lynn and other officials. The goal is to build better cooperation between the organizations.

“I think the services are doing a great job protecting their networks. What we want to have better capabilities in and visibility into is all the data feeds that they have for, say, attack vectors coming toward them – they all can see that individually,” Lynn said. “Where we have greater impact is if we could see the total picture of the attacks so that we could do the large data analytics…and spread the word to the other services [so] that they can better defend.”

Lynn’s comments came just days after Rogers called for “an operational construct” between DISA, CyberCom, NSA and the services—one expected to be formalized by this fall under a new Joint Force Headquarters DoD Information Networks, according to a DoD release.

“Under the current network structure today, those networks are largely run by [the] services. So we’ve got to create a relationship between DISA and the services that is very operational because you’ve got to maneuver networks, you’ve got to react to changes, and you can’t do that in a static kind of environment,” Rogers said. “One of the core missions is the defense of the DoDIN. The forces associated with that mission will be assigned to DISA, to the services [and] to the combatant commanders.”

Lynn said that so far he has not received any orders designating the JFHQ-DoDIN yet, but he is anticipating the decision.

According to Mark Orndorff, DISA program executive officer for mission assurance and network operations and chief information assurance executive, the current structure could provide opportunities for adversaries to gain entry to DoD’s networks.

“If you say let the services do a defense mission, let DISA do a defense mission, let NSA do a defense mission, and we each have our own view of what’s going on, we’ve created seams and a defense approach that don’t make any sense from a cyber defense effects perspective,” Orndorff said. “That gives the adversary an opportunity to walk through those seams and be undetected in terms of getting the full visibility of the adversary’s intent and objectives. So getting the visibility required, getting a consistent security architecture and still enabling the services to do their core cyber defense roles and responsibilities is exactly what we’re trying to do.

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