DOD CIO calls for better industry collaboration on cyber

Defense Department CIO Terry Halvorsen wants a closer partnership between the Pentagon and the private sector to address cybersecurity concerns. And for that partnership to be constructive, technology firms must first get better at talking and partnering among themselves, he said.

"We've got to have the dialogue or the secret weapon does not work," Halvorsen said at a July 28 event organized by National Defense Industrial Association.

DOD's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental initiative is aimed in part at fostering that dialogue, he added. DOD recently opened a second DIUx outpost in Boston while also announcing a faster agile development capability and new prototype work for the program as a whole.

Halvorsen stressed that because no single company can provide DOD with all the answers for most military-scale projects, companies must get better at partnering with one another to pull together effective solutions.

He also noted that it's important for defense agencies to get up to speed on communication.

"To keep our edge, we need to be able to more quickly share data," he said. "That also means industry has got to have the same dialogue."