Top Defense Department officials are considering a proposal that would allow the U.S. Cyber Command to function as a unified combatant command as the military increases its use of cyberspace as a warfighting domain, Military Times reported Tuesday.

Andrew Tilghman writes Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will make the final decision on whether to elevate the status of Cybercom, which currently operates as a sub-unified command of the U.S. Strategic Command, after he finishes a review of proposed changes to a 1986 DoD reorganization law.

“A combatant command designation would allow us to be faster, which would generate better mission outcomes,” Adm. Michael Rogers, head of Cybercom, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.

Rogers, a 2016 Wash100 recipient, told SASC members that Cybercom works to build up the capacity and capabilities of its cyber mission force while the organization operates at an accelerated pace, Cheryl Pellerin of DoD News reported Tuesday.

The report said the command’s cyber mission force will comprise 68 security teams, 27 combat mission teams, 25 support teams and 13 national mission teams.

Rogers expects the entire force to reach full operational capability by the end of fiscal year 2018.

The White House has started to update its information technology systems following the appointment of former Facebook Engineering Director David Recordon as director of White House IT in 2015, the New York Times reported Sunday.

Michael D. Shear writes President Barack Obama’s development efforts on the U.S. Digital Service incited Anita Decker Breckenridge, White House deputy chief of staff for operations, to tap Recordon to spearhead IT upgrade works.

Recordon installed new computers, color printers and digital phone systems at the White House after his team discovered and pulled out 13,000 pounds of unused cables.

Other IT updates at the White House include the introduction of an online system designed to manage visitors’ admission to the West Wing and updates to the Roosevelt Room’s Wi-Fi connection.

Breckenridge told the Times that the White House has eliminated duplicate contracts and used existing IT funds to fund the updates.

The Government Accountability Office has called on the Defense Department to revise its guidance in order to define the responsibilities of DoD components and other entities in providing support to civil agencies during cyber attacks.

GAO said in a report released Monday that it found inconsistencies in some guidance documents on which combatant command would be responsible to support civil agencies in the event of a network breach.

Some documents state that the U.S. Northern Command would be the designated supported command to carry out DoD’s Defense Support of Civil Authorities mission during a cyber incident, while other Pentagon officials said it would be the responsibility of the U.S. Cyber Command.

According to the report, the roles of the dual-status commander and the assistant defense secretary for homeland defense and global security during cyber intrusions at civil agencies are not specified in some DSCA guidance documents and DoD’s Directive 3025.18, respectively.

“DOD concurred with the recommendation and stated that the department will issue or update guidance,” the congressional audit agency noted.

Hackers appear to have leaked the personal data of more than 49 million Turkish citizens online, The Register reported Monday.

John Leyden writes the compromised database contains Turkish citizenship or residency information, including names, addresses and identification numbers.

The hackers responsible for the leak suggest the attack has been politically motivated and was intended to target President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the report.

The reported incident, if confirmed, could be one of the biggest breaches in terms of the number of records affected, Leyden reports.

The leaked data has been published in a web page that displays some personal information related to Erdogan, former President Abdullah Gul and incumbent prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the report said.