Lawmaker calls out Pentagon for lack of encrypted email

A concerned senator from Oregon wrote a letter to the Pentagon’s tech acquisition arm wondering why it’s failed to implement a basic encryption technology to protect employees’ emails.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden sent the letter to Defense Information Systems Agency Director Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn requesting information concerning why DISA has lagged behind the vast majority of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and NSA, in adopting a widely used encryption technology known as STARTTLS to protect unclassified email systems. STARTTLS adds a layer of web encryption over the email protocol SMTP.

“I am concerned that DISA is not taking advantage of a basic, widely used, easily-enabled cybersecurity technology,” Wyden’s letter reads.

See the letter for yourself and read more about it on our sister publication, CyberScoop.