Page 44 - FCW, March/April 2021

AgencySpotlight | DISA
42
March/April 2021 FCW.COM
to DISA’s Requirements and Analysis Office.
Lashley said implementation has been fairly seamless so far, with the lesson that “no environment is identical” as the pri- mary takeaway.
“Beyond improved performance or la- tency reduction, many users are unaware that they’re even doing something dif- ferent,” she said. “All the users generally have to do is browse, except now their browsing occurs in the isolated contain- er, and all internet-born browser code is executed outside of the DODIN. There- fore, users are protected against any re- cent zero-day browser vulnerabilities.”
CBII is part of DISA’s effort to pro- vide secure, cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions for DOD’s workforce, which
includes adopting zero trust methods. Steve Wallace, systems innovation scientist at DISA’s Emerging Technology Directorate, noted that endpoint security
is a critical component of zero trust.
He told FCW that “with respect to CBII, zero trust as well as other design considerations are certainly part of our ever-evolving approach to cyber defense. CBII has changed our approach to both endpoint and perimeter protection. Because it shifts a large portion of the threat off the DODIN, we can reshape
our approach.”
Lashley said DISA plans to integrate
CBII into mobile devices to protect the use of sensitive data and prevent data loss.
“Deploying CBII to mobile devices
will allow mission partners further pro- tections while they’re on the go, work- ing on the fly,” she said. “We are already working with our mission partners to get the requirements to baseline poli- cies and rule sets that ensure users are operating within the constructs of sensi- tive data within their organization and ensuring that organizations are able to discover and stop data from leaving their networks.”
She emphasized that the main goal is to spread CBII’s use across DOD in fiscal 2022. “If you want a solution that allows you to optimize bandwidth, that allows you to enhance network security and \[that\] provides your users with an enhanced...experience, CBII is that so- lution,” she said. n
A single platform for the Fourth Estate
2021 is a big year for DISA as it begins moving all DOD components to a single services network
by Lauren C. Williams
The Defense Information Systems Agency has begun shifting the Defense Department’s dozens of support agencies onto DODNet, a single network for IT- related services.
“One of the reasons the IT reform initiatives were happening is because there was an inconsistent application of IT oversight by the various agencies across the Fourth Estate as a whole,” Col. Chris Autrey, DISA’s lead for the Fourth Estate Network Optimization (4ENO) program, told FCW. The Fourth Estate refers to DOD agencies that are not part of the military, intelligence community or combatant commands.
Although some agencies were doing fine, “some of the smaller agencies strug- gled because they didn’t have the size to be able to do all the pieces they needed to do,” he said, adding that 4ENO will level the playing field.
One of DODNet’s primary goals is
to offload commonly used IT services to DISA so that agencies can focus on their individual missions. DISA kicked things off by migrating its own users to DODNet. After DISA’s pilot migration, the Defense Technical Information Cen- ter in Fort Belvoir, Va., began moving to DODNet in February, with a complete migration planned by the end of March.
“They’re the first big external custom- er for us, and we’ve been working very closely with their director and their lead- ership leading up to this point,” Autrey said. “So both sides are ready to make this transition.”
DTIC will be followed by a group of 13 agencies that includes the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the Defense Media Activity and the Defense Microelectronics Activity.
IT professionals from those agencies will transfer to DISA, but their jobs won’t change for at least the first year. “When
you move to DISA under this environ- ment, you’re going to be doing the same type of work,” such as handling laptops and mobile devices, Autrey said. “The difference is you’re not going to be doing it, necessarily, for just DTIC. You’re going to be doing it as part of the larger DOD- Net environment.”
IT employees at all the defense agen- cies and field activities will make that transition, enabling DISA to “identify a gap in an agency with the people who came over or perhaps an overage in certain areas,” Autrey said. In response, DISA will offer retraining and upskilling as needed.
The Defense Enclave Services con- tract plays a key role in 4ENO. Once it has been awarded, DES will be a prime focus for DISA in 2022 to help provide services for migrating larger agencies to DODNet, such as the Defense Contract Management Agency, Autrey said. n