Defense Industrial Base | The Contracting Education Academy

December 11, 2019 By cs

Top DoD scientist sets up task forces to look at industrial base, infrastructure

The Defense Department’s top scientist is concerned about the state of defense businesses, critical infrastructure and security of microelectronics in the military, and he’s asking some of the Pentagon’s top minds to look into the issues.

In three Oct. 30 memos to the Defense Science Board — a group of military, civilian, science and academic experts sponsored by DoD — Defense Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin asks that task forces be set up to assess the businesses the Pentagon needs to create weapons and how to protect the military’s resiliency. He also asks a task force to look at how to ensure trustworthy microelectronics are used in military systems.

The 21^st Century Industrial Base for National Defense Task Force is tasked with taking proactive steps to increase the depth, breadth and security of the defense industrial base.

The memo gives the task force up to 12 months to study how the industrial base can respond to the need for the military to surge and mobilize. It will also look at how industry can adapt modernization practices to continuously adapt to threats.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2019/11/top-dod-scientist-sets-up-task-forces-to-look-at-industrial-base-infrastructure/

June 6, 2019 By AMK

People are key to securing the defense-industrial supply chain

Infiltrating the defense supply chain is one of the most insidious means by which attackers can compromise our nation’s communications and weapons systems. Successfully targeting a single component of the defense industrial base can cause a ripple effect that can significantly impact everything from data centers to war fighters in theater.

The Department of Defense’s new “Deliver Uncompromised” security initiative is designed to tackle this problem at its root cause: third-party suppliers. In essence, the DoD is requiring its suppliers to bake security into their applications from the beginning of the production process. A “good enough” approach that just clears the bar for minimal security criteria is no longer good enough. Security must be ingrained in the very fabric of the entire production process.

Security starts with people

The process starts with people. They are responsible for ensuring that the solutions that comprise the supply chain work as designed and are inherently secure. They work closely with highly sensitive and proprietary information that is attractive to enterprising hackers. They are the first line of defense.

Unfortunately, those same factors make people the most attractive attack vector. When a malicious actor wants to gain access to a component or system, it’s often easier to just steal someone’s credentials than it is to try and find their way around a firewall. Obtaining a simple password is often enough to gain access to a critical system that can then be compromised, or information that can be exploited.

Keep reading article at: https://www.fifthdomain.com/opinion/2019/05/13/people-are-key-to-securing-the-defense-industrial-supply-chain/

April 29, 2019 By AMK

Why the Navy is giving agencies, industry a much-needed wake-up call on supply chain risks

On page 6 of the Navy’s recent report about its cyber readiness, there is a jaw-dropping confession: “The systems the U.S. relies upon to mobilize, deploy and sustain forces have been extensively targeted by potential adversaries, and compromised to such extent that their reliability is questionable.”

Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, wants that single sentence in the 80-page report to sink in for a second.

“The Navy’s report on their resilience and reliability is that watershed moment not only for the Department of Defense but for all agencies in the federal government, and I would even proffer in the private sector, to have an honest, internal look at their systems, their data, their capabilities and their protection mechanisms and where they have vulnerabilities and how the threats are manifested in their organizations,” Evanina said after speaking at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) event on supply chain management in Arlington, Virginia, on April 1. “I think all agencies should take a hard look and say, ‘What can we do that is similar to this to look at our own processes and protection models?’”

The Navy report serves as a call to arms around the challenges every agency faces from systems under attack to attempts to steal information from its industrial base.

“The DON’s dependency upon the defense industrial base (DIB) presents another large and lucrative source of exploitation for those looking to diminish U.S. military advantage. Key DIB companies, primes, and their suppliers, have been breached and their IP stolen and exploited,” the report states. “These critical supply chains have been compromised in ways and to an extent yet to be fully understood.”

Keep reading article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition/2019/04/navy-giving-agencies-industry-much-needed-wake-up-call-on-supply-chain-risks/

The Defense Department’s top scientist is concerned about the state of defense businesses, critical infrastructure and security of microelectronics in the military, and he’s asking some of the Pentagon’s top minds to look into the issues.

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