The Defense Department is developing a policy that would mandate use of intrusion-detection systems in all military networks. In a move that could have industrywide implications, the agency charged with mapping the security plan could give the military the option to outsource the job. By outsourcing intrusion detection, the Defense Department will go a long way toward legitimizing for the commercial environment the still-controversial idea of handing over large, sensitive security tasks to service providers.
DISA is responsible for defining the intrusion-detection plan.
The military helped pioneer intrusion-detection systems by building its own software from scratch about five years ago. Today only a fraction of the military's overall networked systems are guarded by any form of intrusion detection. When the final decision on the mandatory intrusion-detection systems will arrive is unclear. He left NSA last summer, where he evaluated intrusion-detection products for the intelligence agency, to join research firm IDC, where he now oversees market research on the same subject. These types of challenges, along with the difficulty in hiring security experts to manage intrusion detection, is spurring security services in which intrusion detection is done remotely in the service provider's data centers or with hired help on site.