DOD to expand cyber exchange program with industry

The Defense Department is planning to increase an exchange program involving private-sector and DOD employees in order to improve cybersecurity practices.

DOD CIO Terry Halvorsen said that a program that already has had Cisco router experts work at the Pentagon would be expanded to about 10 other companies, Sean Lyngaas reported for sister publication FCW. Halvorsen was speaking at a breakfast session hosted by the Christian Science Monitor Oct. 29 in Washington.

The industry experts will work either with Halvorsen’s staff or the CIO staffs at the military services. For the full FCW story, click here.

Improving cybersecurity practices is part of the Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Culture and Compliance Initiative released at the end of September, and the exchange program also reflects a larger effort to engage with industry on cyber issues and innovative research.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the strategy in April in the Silicon Valley. Among the initiatives he cited were working with startups that aren’t usually thought of as defense contractors; investing in emerging technologies through In-Q-Tel, the Intelligence Community’s investment capital arm; and expanding the Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellows Program, an employee exchange program with industry.