House NDAA would establish federal cyber threat sharing program
House NDAA would establish federal cyber threat sharing program


The proposed annual defense package would establish a new military and intelligence program to share cyber threat data to prevent attacks.

The Cyber Threat Environment Collaboration Program was included in the chairman’s mark of the proposed 20203 National Defense Authorization Act from the House Armed Services Committee, obtained by POLITICO ahead of a markup next week. The program would direct DHS, DOD, the NSA and the intelligence community to work together to establish the program to share information including malware forensics and network sensor data.

—Higher education: The chairman’s mark also included language that would require the secretary of Defense to create a consortium of military and educational institutions to assist in cybersecurity education and information sharing. The consortium would be led by the president of the National Defense University, and would be made up of groups including professional military education schools, service schools, military service academies, and other higher education institutions.

—Changes made: The chairman’s mark includes a host of cyber provisions not initially included in the portion of the 2023 NDAA marked up earlier this month by the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems. The subcommittee text was unanimously approved, and included language requiring a review of underperforming military software and IT systems, along with an assessment of the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the Defense Department to ensure it can meet agency cyber needs.

—More to come: It is unclear if the cyber requirements in the draft House NDAA will make it into the Senate version, which the Senate Armed Services Committee was working to mark up behind closed doors on Wednesday.

Committee ranking member Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Wednesday that he found the cyber provisions of the Senate NDAA “acceptable,” while committee member Sen. Jackie Rosen (D-Nev.) told POLITICO on Tuesday that she was working to include legislation to establish a civilian cyber reserve program.