Pentagon Bolstering Cybersecurity Demands for Future Contracts

The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer has issued new language applying to future contracts that’s intended to put companies on notice that they must elevate cybersecurity protection.

“We are coming out with standard contract language that all the services will use,” Ellen Lord, the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said in an interview Thursday. “We’ve just sent out our first formal communication” that says “we are going to do it and providing standard language that can be tailored as needed.”

The beefed-up contracting language follows a move by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month to establish a task ...