DISA Tackles Network Defense Role

U.S. Defense Department integrates cyber operations and defense.

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Dec 16, 2014, 12:02 ET

FAIRFAX, Va., Dec. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency is being tasked with an operational role in the cyber domain, namely network defense. This role formalizes the existing relationship between the agency, U.S. Cyber Command and the military services; integrates network operations and defense; and aims at improving network security.

Adm. Michael Rogers, USN, who leads both U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, began promoting the plan months ago. While the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) primarily has been a technical and acquisition organization, it also operates segments of the department's network infrastructure. "We need to integrate operations of the networks and our defensive workforce into one team. You are more effective in both operating a network and defending a network when you do it with one integrated approach," Adm. Rogers says.

"As a result of that, we decided we needed to create a relationship between U.S. Cyber Command and DISA," he explains. The various players have been hammering out an agreement for months to define exactly how that relationship will work. Those players include Terry Halvorsen, the Defense Department's acting chief information officer, and Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, USAF, DISA director.

"I've been working with DISA, the services, the combatant commanders and the department, particularly the chief information officer," Adm. Rogers reports. "I've sat with Gen. Hawkins and said what we need to do is create an operational construct that creates a direct linkage between U.S. Cyber Command, DISA and the U.S. Cyber Command service components."

Speaking at DISA's Forecast to Industry Day, Fort Meade, Maryland, in August, Mark Orndorff, the agency's program executive officer for mission assurance, said the reorganization aims to centralize defense policies and shore up vulnerable "seams in the defense approach that don't make any sense from a cyber defense perspective." He added that the seams provide adversaries an opportunity to walk through undetected.

"The plan is not to say DISA is going to take over," Orndorff said at the event. "I think it's more that DISA will be working with the services, providing the infrastructure to enable each of us to more effectively do our own cyber responsibilities."

Linked by a commitment to cybersecurity, this community of partners will gather at the AFCEA Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium May 5-7, 2015 at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland. "Secure, Operate and Defend the Cyber Mission Space" will focus on the teamwork, relevant guidance and priorities, and associated perspectives of the mission partners.

"DISA is supporting the 2015 AFCEA Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium to encourage dialogue and increase outreach to government and industry partners regarding the critical discussions related to the cyber mission space. A DISA Mission Partnership Conference will not be held in 2015," Gen. Hawkins explains.

More information about DISA's new role is available online.

AFCEA International, established in 1946, is a non-profit membership association serving the military, government, industry and academia. Join online.

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SOURCE AFCEA International