Army Evaluates Zero Trust Cybersecurity for JADC2.

• Author: Easley, Mikayla

The Army wants to implement a zero trust cybersecurity framework as it transforms itself into a data-centrie force. The service has seen how the technology can safeguard critical decision-making data that it wants to harness for future operations.

The Army recently heard pitches about technology that can protect critical decision-making that the Pentagon will process for future operations.

Raytheon Intelligence and Space demonstrated its Operational Zero Trust platform to service officials at this year's Project Convergence experiment hosted by the Army, according to the company. Raytheon showcased the platform during the experiment's inaugural "technology gateway" held in October at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, which served as an opportunity for Army officials to assess emerging technologies in operational environments.

During Raytheon's presentations, the company used a digital model to scale Operational Zero Trust to accommodate different Army command levels and demonstrated the platform's ability to detect and respond to malicious attacks in a warfighting environment, said Greg Grzybowski, account executive for the Defense Department Cyber Defense Account at Raytheon.

Project Convergence allows the Army to test technologies for joint all-domain command and control, also known as JADC2. The Pentagon-wide effort aims to link platforms through a single network that quickly transfers decisionmaking data between multiple sensors and shooters.

The data harnessed by the service for joint operations will need to be protected as it moves between endpoints, Grzybowski said.

"The idea here is you have to defend the data at all points, hence policy enforcement points and endpoint protection. If you're doing that, the best way to do that is a zero trust design," he said.

Zero trust cybersecurity is a framework that requires all users to be authenticated and authorized after every digital interaction. In addition, data in JADC2's network cannot be trusted after it is collected and transferred until it is also verified, Grzybowski said.

The Army signaled it wants zero trust cybersecurity as part of its modernization efforts. The service released an updated cloud plan in...