DISA To Defend DoD Networks In New Role

By Joe Gould

January 13, 2015

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is standing up a new headquarters within the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) that will assume responsibility for defending military networks and will reach initial operating capability this week.

This joint force headquarters will assume roughly a dozen tasks from US Cyber Command, and will have authority to secure, operate and defend the Department of Defense Information Network (DoDIN), said US Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Skinner, DISA chief of staff.

"The end result is to provide unity of command and unity of effort across the entire DoDIN," Skinner told reporters after his remarks at an industry conference here Monday. "We're going to take this off US Cyber Command's plate because there has been this vacuum at the operational level for command and control."

Operations would still be conducted by personnel from the service components. "With the Air Force, say, we would say here's what we need you to do, and they would figure out how to do that to provide a certain effect, to mitigate a vulnerability," Skinner said.

The move will allow US Cyber Command to better focus on strategic coordination between regional combatant commands, he said.

The new organization will provide a command-and-control framework for 39 organizations and will be led by DISA commander Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins.

Those organizations include the services' cyber organizations, as the service components supply personnel to perform day-to-day operations, regional combatant commands and US Transportation Command, which was found to be the target of cyber intrusions.

The headquarters will assemble 219 people focused on the effort, along with related training, equipment and codified tactics techniques and procedures. "We are building capacity from a resource standpoint, so money and personnel," Skinner said.

The moves are part of a larger reorganization at DISA trumpeted on Monday.