According to Department of Defense Deputy Chief Information Officer for Cybersecurity David McKeown, the agency’s mandate to implement zero trust by 2027 should include the various systems that support weapon platforms, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.
McKeown, a past Wash100 Award winner, said during the DoD Zero Trust Symposium on April 3 that weapon platform support systems “are essentially IT systems just like our normal networks and computers” and so “should be covered because they’re part of the [Non-classified Internet Protocol Router] and [Secret Internet Protocol Router] landscape.”
As long as such systems “are network-based, application-based” then the mandate should cover them, the DOD official went on to explain.
Regarding the weapon platforms themselves, DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman acknowledged the challenge of incorporating zero trust into them.
“Zero trust on weapons systems is going to be a heavy lift. We’re going have to figure out how to do that,” Sherman, a 2024 Wash100 Award winner, said.
For his part, McKeown said, “The actual weapon system platform — we’re going to continue to work on how we might employ that.”
David McKeown will be a keynote speaker at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Cyber Summit, which will take place in June. Register now to attend this important event!
