DISA charged with securing networks for all but two agencies

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2012/09/disa-charged-securing-all-two-federal-networks/58354/

By Bob Brewin
Nextgov
Sept 25, 2012

The Defense Information Systems Agency has been tapped to tighten up 
network security of all branches of the federal government except the 
State Department and the FBI, which have their own systems. The move is 
in response to the unauthorized release of hundreds of thousands of 
pages of Pentagon and State classified documents in 2010 and 2011 by the 
website WikiLeaks, the agency said.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on July 20 hinted at Pentagon assistance 
to other federal agencies to beef up security for their networks. DISA 
obliquely disclosed Monday in contract documents that it will function 
as the common service provider for the new public key infrastructure 
hardware tokens, certificates and services for federal classified and 
secret networks except those belonging to State and the FBI.

DISA made clear that the fallout from WikiLeaks’ disclosure of 
classified Defense Department documents and State cables is the reason 
for its broad new governmentwide network security role.

“In response to WikiLeaks, the Office of Management and Budget and the 
[21 agency] Committee for National Security Systems determined that all 
federal agencies that operate on the federal classified [or] Secret 
networks must implement a hardware-based PKI solution to protect their 
information and networks. The objective is to remove anonymity and 
improve the overall security of the federal Secret networks,” DISA said.

[...]

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