Although the Defense Department continues to grow its cyber workforce, the “capacity for training in a realistic environment has not kept pace,” according to the House Armed Services Committee’s intelligence, emerging threats, and capabilities panel’s mark-up of the Fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill. The panel, which noted that it was concerned DOD is not addressing the training needs or coming to a consensus on how to best manage and support those needs, recommended creating an executive agent for DOD cyber training. This position would be a good first step towards better resource management and instilling discipline in cyber testing, states the mark, released April 30. The panel called for a need for “discipline to prevent rampant proliferation of duplicative capabilities,” which an executive agent would be able to oversee. The panel is slated to begin mark-ups Thursday. (See also On Your Mark-Up, Get Set, Go.)
Earlier this week, the People’s Republic of China confirmed it is halting its nuclear arms control talks with the U.S., in retaliation for the U.S. continuing to sell arms to Taiwan. The move reinforces a “pattern of behavior” from Beijing, experts say.