The Defense Digital Service’s mission to “drive a giant leap forward in the way the Department of Defense builds and deploys technology and digital services” is something we can all get behind. As citizens we commend the work they have done as well as their plans to expand on these efforts — we are thrilled to work with them to help further this vision and mission. In light of this week’s report, the work the DDS is doing is more important than ever.
This week, the Pentagon’s combat testing office released initial findings from a report on the Pentagon’s cybersecurity capabilities. The full report, which will likely be released this week and painted a bleak picture of the military’s cybersecurity posture.
This is not the first report highlighting the Pentagon’s cybersecurity challenges. In October theGovernment Accountability Office issued a report that found the U.S. military had failed to make cybersecurity a major focus until recently, despite years of warnings. The report said that Federal information security had been at the top of the list of “High Risk” issues since 1997.
The test office’s findings report that the Pentagon’s cyber testing is “handicapped by lack of expertise” and tools to assess software-intensive weapons systems. While “weapons systems” are not the norm for most of our customers, a handicap of expertise is something we see across industries and in companies of all sizes – as is concerns over sensitive systems. In today’s landscape, and with 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs expected by 2021, it’s nearly impossible to stay ahead of cyber attackers.
