Dana Deasy, chief information officer of the Department of Defense, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon plans to conduct assessments of cybersecurity self-evaluation among defense suppliers, Federal News Network reported Wednesday. According to Deasy, the proposed new procedure will have the DoD evaluate vendors’ cybersecurity self-checks and give “confidence scores†on these assessments.
The CIO added that the Pentagon is also looking into using emerging technologies and enlisting the help of third-party companies to handle secondary assessments.Â
In 2017, DoD mandated contractors to conduct self-assessments on compliance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity standards. The department doesn’t conduct evaluations on whether the firms accurately interpreted the security of their own systems. Deasy noted the effort to develop new cybersecurity procedures will be managed by the DoD’s office of the undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment.
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 has directed supply chain companies and academic entities to ramp up their efforts to thwart cyberattacks in their systems.