Teri Takai, Defense Department chief information officer, and Army Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, both testified before lawmakers Wednesday on new approaches to information technology and cybersecurity.
American Forces Press Service reports the House Armed Services subcommittee on intelligence, emerging threats and capabilities heard testimony on the Pentagon’s effort to restructure its information technology networks.
Takai told lawmakers the Pentagon intends for the Joint Information Environment to create a single cybersecurity approach using its computer centers, computing networks and cyber defenses, Cheryl Pellerin reports for AFPS.
Such a single security architecture intends to cut the number of organizationally owned firewalls and unique routing algorithms, Takai said.
Alexander said Cybercom is prioritizing efforts to build and train a cyber workforce, establishing command and control and doctrine for the cyberspace domain and determining how it will work with other combatant commands, according to AFPS.
He also said Cybercom needs to partner with industry to help defend the U.S. against cyber attacks, citing how the command cannot see attacks against sectors such as Wall Street.
“if we’re going to be able to react to it in time to have favorable results, we need to know that at network speed so that we can react at network speed,” he said, according to the report.
