{"id":25524,"date":"2018-07-25T17:04:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/25\/congress-wants-dod-to-hold-a-national-cyber-response-exercise\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:30:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:30:37","slug":"congress-wants-dod-to-hold-a-national-cyber-response-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/newsletters\/daily-brief\/2018\/07\/25\/congress-wants-dod-to-hold-a-national-cyber-response-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress wants DoD to hold a national cyber response exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If the United States were to fall victim to a large-scale cyberattack that took out critical infrastructure, the Department of Defense could turn to little-used authorities to assist federal civilian agencies with its response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a proposal in a new conference report from the Senate and House Armed Services Committees\u2019 annual defense policy bill, the Department of Defense must hold a high-level exercise and walk through how they would support civilian agencies. Such an exercise would include U.S. Cyber Command, Northern Command and other DoD organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal in the legislation does not specific when such an exercise shall occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill states the exercise must include department-level leadership and decision making for providing cyber support to civil authorities, testing of the policy, guidance and doctrine for cyber-incident coordinating, operational planning and execution by the Joint Staff. The event would be coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and elements across federal and state governments and the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal is in line with concerns from members of Congress and warnings from the Government Accountability Office that found DoD did not ensure staff were properly trained under Presidential Policy Directive on United States Cyber Incident Coordination \u2014 often referred to as PPD-41<\/a> \u2014 which established the government\u2019s response to cyber incidents affecting both the private and public sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\t