DOD Deputy CIO: Pentagon Plans to Accelerate Zero Trust Architecture Rollout

The Department of Defense is seeking to push the deadline for its zero trust cybersecurity architecture rollout before its original deadline of the end of fiscal year 2027, according to David McKeown, the DOD’s deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity and senior information security officer.

Speaking at DefenseScoop’s DefenseTalks on Wednesday, McKeown, a past Wash100 winner, said the Pentagon plans to use various ways to accelerate the adoption of the zero trust principle, including adopting commercial cloud solutions that come with built-in capabilities.

In 2022, the department introduced a strategy that laid down target levels for implementation and comes with a minimum set of 91 capabilities to secure and protect networks, DefenseScoop reported.

McKeown earlier emphasized the importance of automation tools in accelerating the zero trust rollout. Speaking at the UiPath event in May 2023, he discussed automation tools’ role in labeling and storing data stored in the DOD’s repositories.