How the Pentagon Could Soon Share Americans' Data With Foreign Militaries

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/04/how-pentagon-could-soon-share-americans-data-with-foreign-militaries/111553/

By Patrick Tucker
Defense One
April 30, 2015

As Ashton Carter unveiled the Pentagon's new Cyber Strategy last week, he 
underscored its importance by revealing that DOD networks had been 
infiltrated by actors within Russia. The defense secretary did not 
emphasize a provision of the strategy that could send private data about 
U.S. citizens and companies to foreign militaries.

Here’s what it says: “To improve shared situational awareness DOD will 
partner with DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and other agencies to 
develop continuous, automated, standardized mechanisms for sharing 
information with each of its critical partners in the U.S. government, key 
allied and partner militaries, state and local governments, and the 
private sector. In addition, DOD will work with other U.S. government 
agencies and Congress to support legislation that enables information 
sharing between the U.S. government and the private sector.”

The new strategy indirectly, but unequivocally, ties into 
information-sharing legislation that’s slowly making its way to the 
President’s desk. Among the various bills moving around Capitol Hill, the 
most important is the Cyber Information Sharing Act. Among other things, 
CISA would protect companies from being sued for sending data about their 
users to DHS, which would be permitted to send it in real time to DOD and 
other U.S. agencies and outfits. In turn, DOD’s new strategy claims the 
right to to share cyber threat data beyond the United States. Presumably, 
that would include information obtained via CISA.

In particular, the new strategy pledges DOD cyber assistance, including 
information sharing, to allies in the Middle East. “As a part of its cyber 
dialogue and partnerships, DOD will work with key Middle Eastern allies 
and partners to improve their ability to secure their military networks as 
well as the critical infrastructure and key resources upon which U.S. 
interests depend. Key initiatives include improved information sharing to 
establish a unified understanding of the cyber threat, an assessment of 
our mutual cyber defense posture, and collaborative approaches to building 
cyber expertise.”

[...]

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