Information and Communications Technology and the Global Marketplace

The global information and communications technology ICT marketplace brings innumerable benefits to the U.S. Government and the Department of Defense DoD. However, this extended and often unknown supply chain has created an environment where trustworthiness in commercial ICT products is no longer implicit, requiring the U.S. Government to expand its understanding of Information Assurance IA. In this new environment, employing comprehensive protection mechanisms requires consideration of both the depth and breadth of the approach that is, risk and risk mitigation must be considered across the entire life cycle of the product or system, from requirements development to retirement. The DoD is working to develop solutions to manage risk at the network, systems, and product level. Potential solutions include partnership with industry in supply chain oversight and standardization to facilitate keeping intruders and malware out of U.S. Government and DoD networks.