Bob Metzger Coauthors New Report On Supply Chain Security

Recommends Comprehensive Coordination At Enterprise Level

A new report published by a prominent non-profit organization, the MITRE Corporation, recommends a significantly increased effort by the Department of Defense, and its industrial partners, to defend DoD’s capabilities and operations.

The objective of the report is to enable the defense industrial base to deliver systems and services to DoD free of compromise from cyber or supply chain attack.

The report explains the threat in stark terms, describing “asymmetric” methods of attacks coordinated through “blended operations” using cyber domain, supply chain and human elements.

“They can render our national capability to project power-hard or soft-non-mission ready and collapse and even reverse the decision cycle.”

The in-depth report provides 15 courses of action to address the cyber and supply chain security challenge. A key recommendation, already discussed by DoD officials in Congressional testimony, would change acquisition practice to make security a “4th Pillar” equal in importance to cost, schedule and performance. The report also advises that DoD should change contracting methods to make security a positive discriminator in acquisition decisions.

Download the report here.

“Deliver Uncompromised, A Strategy for Supply Chain Security and Resilience in Response to the Changing Character of War,” published by MITRE Corporation, August 2018.

The report was written by:

Chris Nissen,

John Gronager, Ph.D.,

Robert Metzger, J.D., Harvey Rishikof, J.D.