Late last week, the department issued a new DoD Data Strategy: Unleashing Data to Advance the National Defense Strategy. According to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, “the responsibility of all DoD leaders is to treat data as a weapon system and manage, secure, and use data for operational effect.” To this end, the new data strategy makes clear “DoD data will be:

• Visible – Consumers can locate the needed data.
• Accessible – Consumers can retrieve the data.
• Understandable – Consumers can find descriptions of data to recognize the content, context, and applicability.
• Linked – Consumers can exploit complementary data elements through innate relationships.
• Trustworthy – Consumers can be confident in all aspects of data for decision-making.
• Interoperable – Consumers and producers have a common representation and comprehension of data.
• Secure – Consumers know that data is protected from unauthorized use and manipulation.

For additional information see also an October 8, 2020 announcement entitled “DoD Issues New Data Strategy.”