Following up on a bill they introduced last week aimed at bolstering the security of the Defense Department’s cloud computing environments, two House Democrats on Monday offered legislation that would ensure DoD coordinates the use of its ranges used for testing and exercising of cyber and information technology (IT) capabilities.
Reps. Niki Tsongas (Mass.) and Derek Kilmer (Wash.) said their latest bill, H.R. 4500, would help eliminate redundancies, thereby saving taxpayer dollars.
Provisions of the bill would designate a new cyber range executive to coordinate use and integrate commonalities, inventory the cyber and IT ranges across DoD, authorize a demonstration project to advance the utility of cyber and IT ranges, and establish cyber terminology to ease communication.
“This legislation will help eliminate redundancy in each of the services and will ensure that the DoD’s test and training ranges for information technology and cyber defense are well managed and well coordinated, optimizing efficiency and effectiveness,” Tsongas said in a statement on Tuesday.