US Army Disabling Downloads to Tighten Data Network Access, Official Says

Downloading data from the U.S. Army network through commercial internet to soldier and civilian devices, such as laptops and cellphones, will be disabled by June 11, according to Maj. Gen. Chris Eubank, commander of Network Enterprise Technology Command. 

Eubank told Federal News Network in an interview that internet access to Army information will still be available, but authorized users will be unable to pull out the data from the cloud environment. The restriction is targeted at “protecting both the network and our workforce,” he said.

According to the NETCOM head, the development of the Army’s virtual desk initiative and the maturity of the service’s network architecture enabled the upcoming restriction, Federal News Network reported.

To ease the protocol’s transition, NETCOM is providing a quick-response code for the VDI application download to set up an account for a common access card to the Army network through the Azure or Hypori virtual desktop.

Jared Shepard, Hypori president and CEO, said the Army’s cybersecurity steps will “make a big difference” in securing unclassified network resources and reducing the vulnerabilities of controlled unclassified information.