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Insider Threat Key Element of JIE Solutions

Protecting data instead of devices will allow better information security.

The architecture of the Joint Information Environment (JIE) will help the Defense Department deal with the growing insider threat, according to the head of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). Lt. Gen. Ronnie D. Hawkins Jr., USAF, DISA director, told the audience at AFCEA’s three-day Joint Information Environment Mission Partner Symposium in Baltimore that the move to the cloud will enable better security and prevent the traditional insider threat from menacing valuable data.

“Private Manning and [Edward] Snowden have accentuated the need to pay attention to the insider threat,” Gen. Hawkins said of the two recent leakers of classified information. In a media roundtable after his address, the general pointed out that DISA was tasked with looking at the insider threat, and the JIE allows it to do that.

The JIE will emphasize securing data instead of the environment, he told the luncheon audience. “Even though we have global threats, we want to be able to move data wherever we need it,” he offered, adding that DISA wants to focus on data at rest as well as in transit.

Part of this move to the cloud will focus on changing how the cloud is used. Gen. Hawkins stated that this effort is not just about putting big data into the cloud for storage, but also about being able to analyze that big data in the cloud.