Pentagon

The Defense Department has issued a draft plan for its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program that addresses the highest levels of risks for contractors and relies on security controls developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology that are still under review.

Congress is poised to vote on a $1.37 trillion appropriations deal this week for fiscal year 2020 that jettisons Democrats' earlier efforts to restrict the Pentagon's ability to reprogram funding, a measure intended to deter President Trump from again unilaterally transferring money meant for military construction and other defense priorities to build barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who has promised major reforms and bold investments, recently said he will soon order U.S. troops be moved from locations of "low-intensity conflict" to areas of "great power competition" in line with the National Defense Strategy, which calls for pivoting away from the Middle East and toward China and Russia.

The America's Small Business Development Centers this week is hosting the first of what is expected to be dozens of classes throughout the country over the next couple of months that are intended to prepare companies for the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification plan expected to be finalized early next year.

Despite facing a lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims, the Pentagon is moving forward on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud services contract with plans to transition a number of "early adopters" to the Microsoft-provided cloud environment including U.S. Transportation Command, Special Operations Command and the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

The Defense Department has convened a series of industry working groups to develop recommendations for creating an accreditation body that will be central to a cybersecurity certification program for Pentagon contractors expected to be up and running next year.

An agreement by the House and Senate on the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill contains numerous cybersecurity provisions, including an expansion of past cyber acquisition reforms targeting foreign adversaries such as China and Russia, and a requirement that the Defense Department develop a strategy for securing next-generation 5G networks crucial to warfare in the digital age.

The compromise fiscal year 2020 defense policy bill allows the Defense Department to continue developing and testing conventional, ground-launched missiles with ranges in excess of limits set by a now-abandoned treaty, while lawmakers want more information on DOD's plans for the weapons before approving their procurement and deployment.

Pentagon officials are meeting with Microsoft representatives in Washington this week to begin implementing the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, even as Amazon is suing to block the award in federal court.