Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt Joins Pentagon’s Tech-Savvy Mission

Shutterstock

The Pentagon is putting together a new advisory board to bridge the gap between the tech innovation of Silicon Valley and the best practices of the U.S. military, and it’s brought on Google’s former chief executive, Eric Schmidt, to lead the charge, Reuters reported Wednesday (March 2).

Defense Secretary Ash Carter is expected to discuss the new Defense Innovation Advisory Board with Schmidt, who now acts as the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, during an upcoming cybersecurity conference.

The Defense Innovation Advisory Board is one of the many efforts Carter is pushing in hopes of bringing more innovation to the U.S. military. The board will serve as a way for the military to build bridges to the U.S. technology industry, Reuters said.

“The secretary is always looking at ways to … keep the department thinking fresh, bringing in new ideas, bringing in new voices, and he sees this as another opportunity to do that,” one senior defense official told Reuters.

The Pentagon is also taking a similar approach with the announcement of its “Hack the Pentagon” program. The pilot project involves allowing vetted hackers to try their hand at breaching the cybersecurity in place on some of the U.S. Defense Department’s public websites.

This is the first program of its kind offered by the federal government and is aimed at identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities and gaps in the security of its networks, Reuters stated.

“I am confident that this innovative initiative will strengthen our digital defenses and ultimately enhance our national security,” Carter said in a statement.

“The goal is not to comprise any aspect of our critical systems but to still challenge our cybersecurity in a new and innovative way,” said the official.