CIA launches new directorate aimed at improving cyber capabilities

Dive Brief:

The Central Intelligence Agency said it’s officially launched its Directorate for Digital Innovation (DDI), FCW reports.
DDI is an effort to modernize the CIA’s IT systems and “further operationalize its cyber capabilities.”
There are three key components to the DDI: an open source center; a center for managing cyber threats and operations; and an effort geared toward improving the agency’s own dated IT enterprise.

Dive Insight:

The goal of the new directorate is to provide CIA analysts with a "wide range of cyber options" to help them solve problems earlier in the intelligence cycle, said DDI Deputy Director Sean Roche.

The agency plans to better harness data and analytics to provide the agency better intel and insights. The foundation for the new effort is the agency's Information Operations Center, which analyzes foreign threats to U.S. computer systems.

The CIA has been struggling with legacy IT systems that "have not kept pace" said Roche. "You have to very aggressively retire legacy systems" and cannot do it gradually, he said.

Federal CIO Tony Scott recently said the federal government spend 80% of its IT budget on maintenance of legacy systems.