Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work has issued a memorandum that directs all components of the Defense Department to update their information systems and devices to the Microsoft-built Windows 10 Secure Host Baseline operating system, DoD News reported Tuesday.
The decision to deploy the Microsoft Windows 10 SHB “is based on the need to strengthen our cybersecurity posture while concurrently streamlining the IT operating environment,†Work wrote in the Feb. 26 memo.
Cheryl Pellerin writes the memo was addressed to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, service branch secretaries, defense agency directors, defense undersecretaries and field activity directors at DoD.
Work issued the memo nearly in the wake of a November 2015 directive from Terry Halvorsen, DoD’s chief information officer and an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2016, for the Pentagon to subject 4 million seats to the Windows 10 SHB update and complete that deployment within a year.
