[ISN] NSA chief endorses the cloud for classified military cyber program

http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2012/06/nsa-chief-endorses-cloud-classified-military-cyber-program/56257/

By Aliya Sternstein
Nextgov
June 13, 2012

The cloud will be a logical place for sharing classified intelligence on 
cyber threats with critical industries as the Defense Department presses 
ahead on an attack-prevention program it recently opened to all defense 
contractors, former military officials say, and Wednesday, a spokeswoman 
for Gen. Keith Alexander, the military’s top intelligence official, said 
he endorsed the idea.

When the Pentagon started the defense industrial base cybersecurity 
pilot program last summer with select suppliers, many defense and some 
nondefense companies vital to Americans, such as banks, wanted to join. 
The military in May expanded the program to all defense contractors and 
their Internet service providers partly because the department was able 
to develop “a dedicated threat-sharing and collaboration system, and 
validated online application procedures in order to support 
participation by a large number of companies,” preliminary regulations 
noted.

Alexander, who runs the Pentagon’s National Security Agency, which 
produces the intelligence disseminated through the program, has 
repeatedly told lawmakers that the military’s 15,000 networks eventually 
will move to the cloud. And the Pentagon is attempting to save $680 
million annually by consolidating information services through clouds 
run by the Defense Information Systems Agency.

“As Gen. Alexander said at last year’s [Geospatial Intelligence 
Foundation] conference, secure cloud computing offers both DoD and the 
[intelligence community] many advantages and efficiencies that could 
enhance information sharing and collaboration,” NSA spokeswoman Marci 
Green Miller said in a statement. The GEOINT symposium is an annual 
conference that the nonprofit group organizes for intelligence, defense 
and homeland security professionals.

[...]


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