Defense Department officials plan to expand the private-public cyber information sharing pilot program from 37 organizations to 200, Bloomberg reports.
Defense Chief Information Officer Teri Takai told Arlington, Va. conference attendees that the Pentagon will seek White House approval within 60 days to add more companies to the two-year old Defense Industrial Base Information Sharing Environment program.
The program was originally set up to test how companies could voluntarily share threat information with the Pentagon.
Takai said the Pentagon is seeking the White House Office of Management and Budget approval since the program is a public-private sector cooperation.
Takai said the Pentagon provides threat information to participating defense contractors since both the agency and organizations are often subject to similar threats.
Takai said OMB clearence may pave the way for a Department of Homeland Security-led program, intended to improve corporate cybersecurity.
The DHS program would let Internet service providers and contractors, like Verizon and Lockheed Martin, to receive classified intelligence in order to protect themselves and other companies from cyber attacks.
Rear Adm. Samuel Cox, director of intelligence at U.S. Cyber Command, said the program needs to expand in order to guard organizations from increasing hacking efforts from nations such as China.
Cox said China is accelerating efforts to penetrate defense contractor networks and in more sophisticated ways.