DOD SECURITY POLICY IS INCOHERENT AND UNMANAGEABLE, IG SAYS
“DoD security policy is fragmented, redundant, and inconsistent,” according to a new report from the Department of Defense Inspector General. This is not a new development, the report noted, but one that has persisted despite decades of criticism.
There are at least 43 distinct DoD security policies “covering the functional areas of information security, industrial security, operations security, research and technology protection, personnel security, physical security, and special access programs,” the Inspector General report noted.
“The sheer volume of security policies that are not coordinated or integrated makes it difficult for those at the field level to ensure consistent and comprehensive policy implementation.”
The solution to this fragmentation and incoherence is the development of a comprehensive and integrated security policy, the IG report said.
Lacking an integrated framework and an “overarching security policy…, [the] resulting policy can be stove-piped, overlapping and contradictory.”
The issuance of such an overarching security policy, described as “the necessary first step,” is expected later this year.
See “Assessment of Security Within the Department of Defense — Security Policy,” DoD Inspector General report DoDIG-2012-114, July 27, 2012.
Phi Beta Iota: The secret and security worlds are still in the Industrial Era mind-set of “a secret shared is a secret lost.” They literally–well-intentioned souls that they are–do not “get” the opportunity costs of a dysfunctional security system that is so out of control as to be a major impediment to doing anything right, in a timely fashion, at an affordable cost. The security mind-set is enabled by the management mind-set that values security not for what it protects, but for what it helps management avoid: accountability. This is not only the case within DoD, but within the Department of Homeland Security. BRAVO ZULU to the DoD IG on this one. Now if we could just get DoD to understand that an Open Source Agency under Department of State and Department of Commerce auspices, using non-reimbursable funding redirected with OMB approval from the DoD secret budget, is the baseline for the future of DoD policy, DoD acquisition, and DoD operations–as well as Whole of Government and M4IS2 decision support, we just might do some good in the near term.
See Also:
1992 Donahue (US) “There is PLENTY of Money for Open Source”
Open Source Agency: Executive Access Point
Steven Aftergood: 3,103 Classification Guides Now 2,234 – Volumn of Classification Continues
Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State
