Department of Defense (DoD) CIO Dana Deasy is leading a Telework Readiness Task Force to ease the agency’s transition to telework and improve cybersecurity, DoD spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Carver confirmed to MeriTalk.
Members of the task force – the DoD CIO, U.S. Cyber Command, Joint Force Headquarters DoD Information Network, National Security Agency, Defense Information Systems Agency, the Joint Staff and the Military Services – meet daily to monitor the IT environment, assess network readiness, and deploy cybersecurity measures.
The $2 trillion coronavirus relief legislation signed into law last month included a $300 million for DoD to support IT procurement and increase agency network bandwidth.
DoD OCIO began throttling access to services like YouTube to reduce network strain in mid-March and cautioned against using unapproved services on the network, as they could create unnecessary holes in the agency’s security posture.
“With the increased telework capability comes an increased attack surface for our adversary. They’re already taking advantage of the situation and the environment that we have on hand,” Principal Deputy CIO Essye Miller said previously.
