DOD Needs to Improve IPv6 Transition Planning, GAO Says
DOD must improve its IPv6 transition plans, the GAO said Monday. The Pentagon began the planning process in 2017 but "has yet to clearly define the magnitude of work involved, the level of resources required, and the extent or nature…
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of cybersecurity risks if vulnerabilities aren’t proactively managed," GAO said. Defense Secretary Mark Esper should direct the DOD chief information officer "to complete a department-wide inventory of existing IP-compliant devices and technologies to help with planning efforts and requirements development for the transition to IPv6," the report said. The auditor recommended the CIO "develop a cost estimate" for the transition and "develop a risk analysis" for it. DOD "agreed with our recommendations to develop a cost estimate and risk analysis" but "did not agree with our recommendation to complete a department-wide inventory of existing IP-compliant devices and technologies," GAO said. The department "referred to the draft IPv6 guidance that OMB developed in March 2020, stating that the draft guidance will rescind OMB’s fiscal year 2005 IPv6 guidance, which includes the inventory requirement. DOD also said that creating such an inventory would be impractical given the department’s size. It added that it has been mitigating the risk of not having an inventory by only acquiring IPv6-capable devices since December 2009."