Proposed independent cyber service assessment, JFHQ-DODIN upgrade rejected by Defense Department

House and Senate Armed Services Committee members have been urged by the U.S. Defense Department to nix proposals under the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act that would mandate an independent appraisal of a dedicated cyber service and elevate the role of the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

Independent evaluation for the cyber force is no longer necessary as Congress had already required such assessments as part of the fiscal 2023 NDAA, noted the Defense Department in its plea, which also warned about a possible report that does not completely account for the Cyber Command’s readiness challenges should the research outfit tasked to do the job only have access to public data.

“It is troubling to me that DOD’s response to a request for a transparent look is, ‘No, we don’t want transparency. The last organization I saw deny transparency when caught in the open was TikTok … that’s who they’re acting like right now,” said Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation Senior Director Mark Montgomery. On the other hand, upgrading JFHQ-DODIN as a military entity under the Cyber Command has been opposed by the Defense Department due to the command relationships that would be defined in the process.