DOD’s Third Attempt To Implement IPv6 Isn’t Going Well

The US Department of Defense is woefully behind on its plan to upgrade its IT infrastructure to support the newer IPv6 protocol, according to a government report published on Monday. From a report: This current effort is the third time the DOD attempts to upgrade its infrastructure to support IPv6 over in the past 17 years. The first two attempts took place in 2003 and 2010, respectively. The 2003 effort was abandoned with the DOD citing security risks and a lack of personnel trained in IPv6, while the second attempt was also abandoned, similarly on the grounds that IPv6 was not yet secure enough for the DOD’s sensitive networks. On Monday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the auditing agency of the US government, said that the DOD’s third attempt isn’t doing any better either. GAO officials said the DOD failed to follow four basic requirements that were set out by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2006. The four requirements were part of an OMB guideline sent to all federal agencies detailing the proper procedure for upgrading networks from IPv4 to IPv6. “For its current [third] initiative, DOD has not completed three of four longstanding OMB requirements,” GAO auditors said in a report published on Monday.