Reduced DoD cyber oversight criticized

CyberScoop reports that reducing the Defense Department's cyber authorities under the National Security Presidential Memorandum by allowing the State Department to engage in cyber operations decision-making process will slow down the U.S. Cyber Command's response to increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats, according to Cyberspace Solarium Commission Co-Chair Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis. "The time-honored military principles of delegation and accountability have been well balanced in NSPM-13 and efforts by the Administration to pull back the delegation and provide additional oversight and interagency input in the midst of the execution phase risks undermining our national security," said Gallagher in a statement. Revisions to NSPM-13 have previously been discouraged by Gallagher and Cyberspace Solarium Commission Co-Chair Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. "Any effort to alter and possibly weaken NSPM-13 signals to our adversaries a lack of credible willingness to use offensive cyber capabilities which undermines the credibility of our deterrent," wrote Gallagher and King to President Joe Biden last month.