The Defense Intelligence Agency is delving deeper into its network layers to protect its data.

But the ultimate goal isn’t just data protection, but balancing security with accessibility.

Janice Glover-Jones, the DIA chief information officer, said the current approach to data is dependent on too many siloed systems and security is too focused on applications.

Glover-Jones continuing along this path will further exacerbate a growing challenge for the mission side of DIA — finding the right data in a timely and secure manner.

“Our intent is to have the data layer available across the spectrum of tools with optimized data indices that allow for rapid analysis without searching for a particular data set,” Glover-Jones said. “Additionally, by moving away from the security of the application and away from the system and the network, the accreditation of the capabilities become very rapid and focuses on the appropriate functionality of the application, the widget or APIs and the scripts so by we are reviewing it by the security controls associated with confidentiality, integrity or availability.”

DIA still is reviewing its options about how to best to secure the data layer. The Defense Department has talked in the past about requiring a hard token through the Common Access Card (CAC) to log- on to its secret network.

Glover-Jones said the end goal of this effort is to use back-end attribute exchange and role-based processes as part of the data access security model.

She said DIA hasn’t developed an acquisition strategy and doesn’t expect to issue any kind of solicitation in the coming months.

A second major priority for Glover-Jones is around the workforce to build a culture of trust, accountability, ownership and employee appreciation.

DIA has seen a dramatic change in its IT workforce over the last three years. As it has implemented cuts from sequestration, former CIO Grant Schneider cut the IT contractor workforce by 50 percent. DIA also reorganized how it delivers IT services to focus more on functional expertise by moving people out of traditional management roles and into the mission IT areas.

Glover-Jones, who took over for Schneider on a permanent basis in December, said the large scale reductions of the contractor workforce has caused DIA to lose some institutional knowledge about the inner workings of the organization.

She said in response DIA is focusing on leadership, technical and non-technical skills.

“I’m focusing on the soft skills side, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, structured analytics to help the workforce. To this point, what I’ve done is doubled our training budget and I’ve invested in maturing the talent across the training opportunities all the way across the CIO so regardless of what your grade level is,” Glover-Jones said. “We also are leading an aggressive recruitment campaign hiring entry level employees with some critical technical skills that we are looking at and then growing our bench so that we can to offset some of the changes and the challenges that are coming our way.”

Glover-Jones said in a time when training budgets typically are cut, she made the case to DIA senior leaders to double the training budget and to increase funding so the workforce can travel to training courses.

“One of the things that I did to show the commitment to this is I brought in a joint duty assignment from CIA,” she said.

“This individual, who helped standup CIA’s IT university, has come over, helped me develop that workforce training program, focusing on the soft skills piece and working with the subject matter experts to develop the technical expertise. I have that individual in place who is also taking some of that training on the road so we are looking at it from a multi-faceted standpoint.”

Glover-Jones said the soft-skills are key to explaining why IT or cyber is important to non-experts.

“I really push self-awareness and knowing how to handle situations as they come up. That’s a big part of that if you are going to be a leader, if you are going to have a workforce that stays engaged, that stays motivated to continue to work, you have to be able to deal with different aspects,” she said. “Everybody learns differently so that’s one of the big things I’ve been pushing on is not just your technical expertise. I want you to be technically astute, but I also want you to have the social skills to build teams, to build relationships and collaborate across your customer set.”

Another way DIA is promoting that combination of hard and soft skills is by requiring five percent of an office’s workforce to be out on joint duty assignments. The goal is to create relationships and learn about how other parts of the DoD or the Intelligence community operates.

Glover-Jones said her office has met that five percent goal.

“We are looking at where we can bring the opportunities for other people within the community to come in and work with DIA as well,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a sacrifice you have to make. When you look at leadership and if you look at it from a larger perspective, you may have to give up something now but it pays dividends in the future.”

RELATED STORIES:

Army strengthens access rules for secret network

Schneider leaves a legacy of change at DIA

DIA gets a permanent CIO, DoD losing a cyber expert

Intel agencies determined to avoid another workforce ‘bathtub’ effect

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.