The Defense Information Systems Agency has completed a prototype initiative to develop a zero trust network access architecture that uses a set of commercial technologies to provide network security across the U.S. military.
DISA said Wednesday the Thunderdome prototyping effort has demonstrated and proven the ability of secure access service edge, software defined-wide area networks and other commercially available tools to enhance security and network performance.
Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, director of DISA and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said the agency aims to help the U.S. maintain a cybersecurity advantage “above our adversaries across all the warfighting domains.”
“Thunderdome will help us achieve this advantage by making DOD’s networks more secure and thereby more challenging for threat actors to gain access to DOD systems. And our Thunderdome prototype validates our success,” Skinner added.
As part of the program, DISA deployed the Thunderdome prototype to nearly 1,500 users at three locations to test its remote and on-premises capabilities.