By Justin Katz
Jan 20, 2021
Donald Trump issued an executive order on the final night of his presidency aimed at forcing cloud providers to capture more complete records about foreign customers. Foreign actors use United States [cloud services] for a variety of tasks in carrying out malicious cyber-enabled activities, which makes it extremely difficult for United States officials to track and obtain information . before these foreign actors transition to replacement infrastructure, according to a letter from Trump to Congress publicly released in the evening of Jan. 19.
To address those threats, the EO states, the government will move to require cloud providers to keep more complete records of foreign entities that they sell to and potentially require companies to limit certain foreign actors’ access.
By Lauren C. Williams
Jan 20, 2021
Thanks to the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing your own approved device (BYOAD) is now a high priority for the Defense Information Systems Agency.
That s due in large part to vastly more teleworkers and the temporary deployment of the Defense Department s commercial virtual remote (CVR) Teams environment. As DOD and DISA move to a permanent Microsoft Office 365 solution this summer, the need and demand for BYOAD is expected to increase. With the rollout of CVR and the success of CVR users and the fact that users are working differently with CVR, it is driving us more quickly to BYOAD, Steve Wallace, the systems innovation specialist for DISA s Emerging Technologies Directorate, said during a Jan. 14 AFCEA DC virtual event.
By Lauren C. Williams
Jan 20, 2021
The Defense Department has begun shifting the chief management officer position and duties that Congress repealed in the 2021 defense authorization bill to several entities across DOD, including the CIO.
Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist pushed out in two memos dated Jan. 11 re-establishing two organizations to bear some CMO responsibilities, and realigning others across the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
One memo resurrected two positions: the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight office, which will take on the CMO s Division of Intelligence Oversight function, funding and responsibilities, and the Director of Administration and Management, which will take over the CMO s Directorate for Oversight and Compliance and the Directorate for Administration and Organizational Policy. The latter will also take control of the Washington Headquarters Service and the Pentagon Force Protection Agency.
The Defense Department s top buyer, Ellen Lord, said the incoming Biden administration will have to contend with adversarial investments and cybersecurity weaknesses in the contractor base.
If confirmed, Avril Haines says that one of her top priorities as the Director of National Intelligence will be "institutional" issues, like renewing public trust in the intelligence community and improving workforce morale.