The Department of Defense has formed a team to carry out its own investigation to determine the authenticity of the purported classified documents containing information on the Ukraine war and intercepted communications and other intelligence on U.S. allies that appeared online, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Chris Meagher, a spokesman for DOD, said Defense Secretary and 2023 Wash100 awardee Lloyd Austin is overseeing the Pentagon inquiry, which includes senior military officials from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and officers from legislative affairs, public relations and defense policy teams.

“This team is really working to get our arms around everything that has to do with this distribution,” Meagher told reporters Monday.

“It’s assessing the national security implications; it’s making sure that we’re engaging with members of Congress; and it’s making sure we’re engaging with allies and partners,” he added.

According to WSJ, the Department of Justice and the FBI are also conducting a criminal investigation into the leaked documents.

The agencies’ move comes as the U.S. government engages with allies to address the diplomatic fallout from the leaked files.

“Those conversations began over the weekend and are ongoing,” Meagher said.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released the second version of its framework to advance the implementation of zero trust architecture across the federal government.

CISA said Tuesday the Zero Trust Maturity Model version 2 incorporates feedback and recommendations received from the public in 2021 and includes a new stage called “Initial” to identify maturity for each zero trust technology pillar.

The latest version adds new functions and updates to existing ones to guide zero trust transition plans throughout the four maturity stages.

“As one of many roadmaps, the updated model will lead agencies through a methodical process and transition towards greater zero trust maturity. While applicable to federal civilian agencies, all organizations will find this model beneficial to review and use to implement their own architecture,” said Chris Butera, technical director for cybersecurity at CISA.

The framework also outlines five pillars of achieving zero trust maturity: identity, devices, network, data and applications and workloads. Each pillar provides details on three cross-cutting capabilities: visibility and analytics, automation and orchestration and governance.

Nathaniel Fick, U.S. ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy at the State Department, said the department plans to set up a special fund to help allies and other international partners facing cybersecurity crises, Breaking Defense reported Monday.

“First, we’re making a push for a dedicated cyber assistance fund. We did it after 9/11 for counterterrorism, we should do it now,” Fick said of the fund, which he said would receive support from Congress.

“We don’t have the mechanisms in place for rapid, dedicated response. That would help a lot, and I think there’s support for it on the Hill,” he added.

The fund is part of a three-part plan Fick discussed to address the gap in the demand for capability building worldwide. The two other parts focus on the role of the private sector and the need to modernize delivery mechanisms for fundamental global cyber capacity building.

Fick also cited the global demand for cyber literacy support and capacity building and the interest of allies in the U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy.

The Potomac Officers Club will hold the 2023 Cyber Summit on June 8. Join this event to hear thought leaders as they discuss cyber capabilities to counter emerging threats.