DOD, intell community to share services
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U.S. military and intelligence communities plan to integrate their computer networks to share authorization and attribute services.
The U.S. military and intelligence communities recently announced a plan to better integrate their computer networks to share authorization and attribute services. The Defense Department's chief executive officer, John Grimes, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's CIO, Dale Meyerrose, signed a letter in late April agreeing to the expanded interconnection between their computer systems, the two organizations announced earlier this week.
The targeted services verify the identities of individuals accessing the networks and manage the information they are allowed to access and use, according to DOD and ODNI. The letter also calls for DOD and ODNI to develop common specifications, policies and interfaces to let DOD and the intelligence community operate and share applications, services and information in multiple environments, whether unclassified, secret or top secret.
In addition, the DOD and ODNI agreed to deploy compatible authorization and attribute services where practical to help train users, manage system access and reuse applications and services. The organizations also agreed to interconnect the services where applicable with other interagency initiatives. DOD and ODNI will establish a joint team to develop strategic guidelines for the initiative, they said.
The initiative parallels Executive Order 13388, 'Further Strengthening the Sharing of Terrorism Information to Protect Americans,' and the intelligence community's Information Sharing Strategy, the organizations said. It is also expected to help further the goals of multiple programs and applications at DOD and ODNI, including DOD efforts to develop information-sharing capabilities using access-control services and the ODNI initiative to build its A-Space virtual work environment.
The agreement created guidelines for a joint DOD and intelligence community Authorization and Attribute Services Tiger Team that will create specifications for implementing interoperability in the unclassified, secret and top-secret/sensitive compartmented information environments. The team also will recommend specifications for improving connections between authorization and attribute services, identify and build on current authorization and attribution services throughout DOD and ODNI, and define common specifications and interfaces to replicate or share applications and services.
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