Cybersecurity industry leaders, stakeholders and experts recommend the Department of Defense observe coordination with contractors regarding cyber issues more closely, Fifth Domain reported Wednesday. This recommendation comes to address the cyber vulnerabilities of the military’s supply chain.
In 2017, the federal government’s Defense Science Board said the supply chain’s complex structure creates openings for potential threats. The board noted that microelectronic parts and weapons move within the supply chain without formal protection plans, increasing the potential for vulnerabilities. Items moving in the chain undergo a number of different processes and thus become harder to track, the report noted.
Ray Gagne, director for acquisition program information protection with the U.S. Army, said that the military lacks oversight of activities in the subcontract level of defense programs.
“With the primes we have contractual understandings, but when they subcontract out, that is inherently a vulnerability,” he said.
He added that the military is working on an approach to protect technical data moving through the supply chain.
