{"id":29648,"date":"2021-11-10T19:25:36","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T19:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2021\/11\/10\/pentagon-zero-trust-cyber-office-coming-in-december\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:34:28","slug":"pentagon-zero-trust-cyber-office-coming-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/smr\/cybercon\/2021\/11\/10\/pentagon-zero-trust-cyber-office-coming-in-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon \u2018zero trust\u2019 cyber office coming in December"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 Next month, the Pentagon will formally launch a new office dedicated to accelerating the adoption of a new \u201czero trust<\/a>\u201d cybersecurity model, a senior DoD official said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David McKeown<\/a>, DoD\u2019s chief information security officer, said the office will fall under DoD\u2019s chief information officer and be led by a yet-to-be-named senior executive. The move is part of an acceleration to ongoing zero trust implementation spurred by the Russian-orchestrated SolarWinds<\/a> intrusion of federal systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve redoubled our efforts, we\u2019ve fought for dollars internally to get after this problem faster,\u201d McKeown said at C4ISRNET\u2019s CyberCon<\/a> event. \u201cWe\u2019re standing up a portfolio management office that will … rationalize all network environments out there, prioritize and set each one of them on a path of zero trust over the coming five, six, seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zero trust assumes no trust across networks, devices or users, and demands constant, real-time authentication of the users accessing data. It\u2019s a departure from perimeter-based security, through which an intruder can often move freely through a network after penetrating it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKeown said that while DoD has adopted some components that are meant to work together to create a \u201czero trust\u201d environment, it\u2019s not being prescriptive about the products its enclaves choose to adopt, as long as those products work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of attention on this now, and we\u2019ve got senior leadership in the department on board and putting their money where their mouth is and helping us to implement this at a very fast pace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n