The Department of Defense (DoD) is working on implementing more data tagging as a solution when it comes to maturing the agency’s identity, credential, and access management (ICAM) capabilities, a Pentagon official said this week.
Jaime Milne, Identity Credential and Access Management Solutions advisor at DoD, discussed the need for more data tagging at the Okta City Tour and Gov Identity Summit on June 13.
“We need to be able to tag our data,” Milne said. “That’s our number one, leapfrog piece of advice when working with our partners. How your data is tagged allows you to use the identity information that you’ve already worked hard to collect in order to be able to support the mission.”
According to Milne, DoD needs to balance the data’s identity along with its use case.
“So we need to have that balance there where we’re not just in control of identities, but we’re in control of our data. We can make smart decisions based on the data and not just the identity itself,” said Milne.
The need for data tagging is aligned with the Federal government’s focus on advancing zero-trust principles and protecting government networks from security breaches.
“[It] starts with data tagging as part of the equation, right. Identity is critically important … It really starts with data tagging. There are many long winding roads to get to zero trust,” stated Milne.
The need to focus on data at the DoD stems from the DoD Data Strategy that was released back in 2020 and that supports the Defense Department’s efforts to modernize many of its technologies.
“Warfighters at all echelons require tested, secure, seamless access to data across networks, supporting infrastructure, and weapon systems out to the tactical edge. The advanced capabilities provided by DoD’s Digital Modernization program depend upon enterprise data management policies, standards, and practices,” states the strategy.
