From: Federal Computer Week

By Amber Corrin

The Defense Department is taking more aggressive steps in cyberspace, including clearer authorities, more oversight and a key partnership to identify and address gaps, due to provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2013.

Those provisions in the NDAA, which President Barack Obama signed into law on Jan. 2, require DOD officials to report on cyber operations to Congress on a quarterly basis, beginning March 1. It also outlines authorities and expectations for military forces in cyberspace.

‘‘The Secretary of Defense shall provide to the Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate quarterly briefings on all offensive and significant defensive military operations in cyberspace carried out by the [DOD] during the immediately preceding quarter,” the NDAA text reads. It also orders the defense secretary to provide within 90 days “a briefing on the interagency process for coordinating and de-conflicting full-spectrum military cyber operations for the federal government,” as well as future cyber budgeting justification.

The NDAA text includes guidelines for faster reporting of network penetrations, as well as language that appears to open the door to elevating Cyber Command from a sub-unified command. Currently CYBERCOM is subordinate to U.S. Strategic Command, which is one of the military’s nine unified combatant commands. However, the Act’s language is cautious: In a section titled “Sense of Congress on the United States Cyber Command,” the Act notes that  “Congress expects to be briefed” on any proposed change to the command’s status, including an outline of the expected benefits of the change and an estimate of the cost.

Among the provided cyber authorities are clandestine operations and green lights for activities to, among other things, develop cyber weapons systems. There are details for implementing the much-discussed Joint Information Environment, as well as a next-generation, host-based DOD network defense.

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