Marine Corps official calls for ensuring supply chain protection by implementing acquisition standards

The Marine Corps can protect its supply chains from potential cyberattacks by implementing standards early in the acquisition process, the service's commander for cyberspace said this week.

"A lot of what [Defense Department Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy] is trying to do [is] ensure that standards are right upfront, which will solve hopefully some of the silliness, that we know what we need, when we need it, and again, back to the standards, for it to be part of our network," Maj. Gen. Matthew Glavy said at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington this week.

The commander's remarks come after Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord told reporters in July the Defense Department provided a list of "do not buy" software to acquisition officials to prevent the Pentagon from using software connected to China or Russia.

Glavy on Thursday said focusing on protection during acquisition could "solve a lot of our problems."

"I know DOD CIO and others are trying to get at this from an acquisition process," he said. "Get the standards right so we get them done early so now we can proceed at a relevant pace."

Asked whether the Marine Corps has received guidance from the Pentagon about the "do not buy" list, Glavy told Inside the Navy he was "not familiar," noting he does not work on the service's acquisition efforts.

Details surrounding the "do not buy" list have remained unclear since Lord's disclosure to reporters, but the under secretary said at the time the Defense Department started assembling its list six months ago. Lord did not identify specific companies or software.