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'SWAT Team of Nerds' Tackles Tough Tech Challenges
by David Vergun, DOD News
October 24, 2020
The Defense Digital Service is a team of 82 engineers, data
scientists and computer scientists, working on some of the hardest
problems in the Defense Department.
Brett Goldstein, DDS director, said they're a 'SWAT team of
nerds'. He spoke remotely today to the Center for a New American
Security in Washington, D.C.
A big advantage of DDS, he said,
is that it reports directly to the secretary of defense.
That
means the team is able to quickly answer the call if any tech issue
arises. He also said that they could work on large projects rapidly
when needed.
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October 9, 2020 - U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Dean Caniban conducts maintenance on a computer in the automated data processing help desk center of the Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Quinton A. Lee)
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DDS has worked on the much-publicized "hack the Pentagon"
program, which looks for vulnerabilities in the department's
information technology systems and comes up with ways to fix them,
as well as to improve software and hardware.
Currently, DDS
is partnering with the National Security Agency to cyber-protect
Operation Warp Speed's search for a COVID-19 vaccine, he said.
DDS has also partnered
with the medical community to develop COVID-19 symptoms checkers,
which DOD personnel and their families can use to figure out if they
need to get medical care, he said.
Another important ongoing
program is the counter-unmanned aerial systems initiative, which
addresses the problem of being attacked by swarms of small,
hard-to-detect unmanned aircraft systems. Goldstein said that a
rapid response team is on standby to fly out to remote areas should
the problem arise.
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September 24, 2020 - North Carolina National Guard Staff Sgt. Latrica Quander-Freeman, a cyber operator assigned to the 263rd Combat Communications Squadron, updates a computer as part of Cyber Shield 2020 held at the North Carolina National Guard’s Fort Fisher Training Center in Kure Beach, North Carolina. (Army National Guard photo by Robert Jordan)
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For example, when the USNS Comfort and Mercy
hospital ships were aiding in the COVID-19 effort, DDS personnel
were helping to ensure small UAS were not being used to attack them.
DDS is also working with the Joint Artificial Intelligence
Center to advance AI and machine learning, he said.
Most DDS
employees recruited are civilians coming for two- to four-year
terms, from the Silicon Valley world. The selection process is very
rigorous, he said, because those who are selected will be working on
the hardest problems in the department.
Goldstein said the team members are given the most
"wicked" projects to work on and they're okay with that because
"engineers love challenges."
Some advice Goldstein has for
information technology leaders in the department: "We need to
sometimes talk a little less and execute a little more. Sometimes
we'll be dead-on and sometimes we'll fail, learn from the failure
and then be okay with the failure and just try again. Like that's
the type of environment we need to encourage. Americans are
innovative. We need to foster that innovation here."
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