The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a regulatory framework that dictates how defense-related articles and services are exported and imported. As international relations evolve in response to new threats, alliances, and opportunities, ITAR will continue to play a significant role in ensuring that national security is handled responsibly.
Central to the ITAR equation is secure, compliant data sharing. However, the complexity of the public sector’s technology landscape can trickle down to data access provisioning, making collaboration both dubious and burdensome.
In this blog, we’ll take a deep dive into ITAR compliance, exploring its key components, challenges, and solutions that allow public sector agencies to streamline how they manage it.
What is ITAR?
ITAR is a set of regulations that governs how defense articles and services are imported and exported. It is enforced by the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) to control how military technologies are used, making it a critical component of US national security and foreign policy.
ITAR’s requirements cover “defense articles,” which include everything from firearms and ammunition to military vehicles and aircrafts, as well as “technical data,” which comprises blueprints, specs, and other information used in the design, development, production, or operation of defense articles.
Any organization that manufactures, exports, or deals with the exchange of defense articles is subject to ITAR standards, as is anyone who handles or shares relevant technical data.
The people and processes involved in ITAR compliance
ITAR compliance is multifaceted, requiring the coordination of various people and processes.
Who is responsible for ITAR compliance?
ITAR compliance is ultimately the responsibility of everyone who handles the information covered by the regulations or plays a role in the activities it covers. All of these people — from leadership to engineering to sales — must be educated about ITAR standards and commit to upholding them. But the role of governance and legal teams is particularly important.
Governance and legal teams can be considered a primary line of defense, responsible for interpreting ITAR, establishing compliance programs that support it, continuously conducting internal audits, and providing guidance to other employees on ITAR-related matters. Their expertise is crucial in navigating the complexities of ITAR and ensuring that agencies and organizations are compliant.
What processes are involved in ITAR compliance?
Knowing the core steps involved in achieving ITAR compliance can help provide a roadmap, so you can anticipate and plan for challenges along the way.
Registration
The first step is to register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) by submitting an application and paying a registration fee. Each registered organization receives a specific registration code that must be referenced on all ITAR-related documentation.
Classification
Determine which defense articles and technical data you’ll be leveraging, and classify them using the US Munitions List (USML), an official and comprehensive list of defense-related articles, services, and technical data. This will help prepare you for the next step.
Licensing
Obtain a license from the DDTC for the defense articles and technical data that you’ll be transferring. This process can be complex and time-consuming because it involves pulling together detailed information about the items at hand, the end-user(s), and the intended use, but if you’ve followed the previous step, you may save yourself some time.
Control plans
There are two types of control plans to develop and implement: the first should ensure that technical data is provisioned appropriately and securely (we’ll discuss that in more detail below); and the second should lay out the people and processes, including training processes, needed to execute exports in compliance with ITAR.
Training
Mandate regular trainings on ITAR compliance to educate employees about its key components, the company’s export control plan, and the requirements for handling ITAR-controlled information.
Recordkeeping
Maintain thorough records of all ITAR-related activities, including export licenses, shipping documents, training records, and audit reports, and ensure they are available to government agencies upon request.
Auditing
Regularly perform internal audits that assess your company’s ITAR compliance program, identify gaps or vulnerabilities, and recommend corrective actions.
The top ITAR compliance challenges
Like any data compliance law or regulation, ITAR presents its own challenges to data teams that are looking to move fast and scale. Anticipating these challenges can help you prepare for and put strategies in place to mitigate them:
- Legal ambiguity: ITAR is a comprehensive set of regulations, and without proper legal and governance guidance, it can be difficult to interpret. Translating legal language into effective access policies — and ensuring they stay up-to-date — requires industry expertise and attention to detail.
- Data security: Safeguarding defense articles, technical data, and other sensitive information from unauthorized access is often challenging to manage, particularly at scale. With regard to ITAR, penalties for sensitive data exposure go beyond monetary fines — organizations may be barred from contracting with the government or, in worst-case scenarios, put national security and public trust at risk.
- International collaboration: When sharing data with international partners, it’s critical to take steps to ensure that data is shared securely and in accordance with ITAR standards. However, this often involves navigating complex legal frameworks that vary from country to country. You need a data security strategy that can handle each variation without adding an unreasonable management burden.
- Management burden: Along the same lines, ITAR compliance can create a significant administrative burden. From obtaining export licenses and maintaining records, to monitoring transfers and conducting audits, you need team members who can dedicate sufficient time and resources to achieving compliance.
How data security tools simplify ITAR compliance
In spite of these challenges, you can build a modern data stack that is optimized for ITAR compliance. With knowledge of your potential obstacles, you can pinpoint gaps and put the right tools in place to close them. Some of the key capabilities to look for are:
Cross-platform integrations
As we mentioned above, the management burden that ITAR presents can weigh down even the most nimble data teams. Creating and enforcing access policies for each individual platform in your ecosystem increases the likelihood of inconsistencies and your surface area for risk. Implementing a data access governance tool that integrates with major cloud providers and centralizes policy management across all of them helps avoid this scenario.
Dynamic data access control
Data security is a key tenant of ITAR compliance, but is also one of its challenges. Investing in a data security platform that offers fine-grained access control ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive data, down to the row, column, or cell level. With attribute-based access control (ABAC), you can automatically control who can access data based on dynamic factors such as user role, time, location, and intended purpose, which vastly reduces the administrative burden of manually reviewing and approving access requests. Additionally, dynamic data masking and encryption capabilities help ensure that data is protected from unauthorized access at rest and in motion.
Data monitoring and auditing
As with any compliance initiative, you can’t achieve ITAR compliance without auditing capabilities. Even when scheduled audits are not in progress, you still need to know how data is being accessed in order to proactively identify anomalies. Data security platforms that offer continuous data monitoring and unified audit provide a comprehensive view of all data access and activity, so you can keep tabs on who accessed what data, when, and why. This also helps with data loss prevention by ensuring that sensitive data is not inappropriately moved externally.
Compliant collaboration
As organizations turn to internal data marketplaces to manage, share, and put data products to work, choosing a platform that has governance workflows baked in helps enable collaboration while remaining ITAR-compliant. Domain-level data product owners are able to enforce the proper controls on their data, including purpose-based access controls that require users to acknowledge an intended usage statement before accessing.
ITAR use cases in the public sector
When implemented appropriately and compliantly, ITAR opens up opportunities for public sector organizations. Some key use cases include:
Defense manufacturing: Companies that manufacture defense articles, such as military aircraft, naval vessels, or weapons systems, must comply with ITAR regulations when exporting the articles or sharing technical production data. For example, if an organization that produces components for a fighter jet wants to sell those components to a foreign military, it must obtain the necessary export licenses and ensure ITAR compliance throughout the transfer. This extends to sharing blueprints, manufacturing processes, and quality control procedures with international partners.
Research and development: Universities and institutions that conduct R&D on defense articles, such as materials for military applications, missile defense systems, or secure communication technologies, must also comply with ITAR. For instance, a university developing a new type of military vehicle armor under a government contract must ensure that the data and findings are subject to ITAR controls, such as restricted access and secure transfers.
Technical assistance: Technical assistance provided to foreign governments or agencies must comply with ITAR. This includes training, engineering support, or consulting services related to designing, developing, producing, or operating defense articles. So, if a company provides training to a foreign military on how to maintain a specific weapons system, its activity is subject to ITAR. Similarly, a company that sends engineers to a foreign country to assist with the assembly of military equipment is also subject to ITAR standards.
Data sharing: Sensitive defense-related data must be shared in accordance with ITAR regulations. This includes sharing information related to military operations, intelligence gathering, or weapons development. For example, if a government agency shares classified information about a drone with a defense contractor involved in its development, strict ITAR-compliant security measures must be in place to protect the data from unauthorized access and disclosure. This is particularly critical when collaborating with international allies, as secure data sharing protocols are essential to maintain both security and compliance.
ITAR exemptions and exclusions
While ITAR is a comprehensive regulation, certain exemptions and exclusions still exist. Items may be exempt from ITAR controls if they are intended for civilian use or if they are being exported to certain countries. These exemptions and exclusions should be handled on a case-by-case basis, but understanding them is essential for avoiding unnecessary compliance burdens.
Dual-use items
Though they are less common, it’s worth mentioning that dual-use items, which have both military and civilian applications. These include high-performance computers, GPS systems, composite materials, and certain electronics and software, among others. Organizations dealing with dual-use items must carefully assess their ITAR obligations and implement appropriate controls to ensure compliance.
Conclusion
ITAR compliance is a critical aspect of data security in the public sector. Modern data security platforms help organizations navigate potential ITAR complexities and ensure that sensitive defense-related data is sufficiently protected.
By implementing robust, ITAR-compliant data security measures, you can protect national security, advance foreign policy interests, and avoid the penalties associated with non-compliance.
To see how Immuta helps achieve ITAR compliance and streamline data governance, read this step-by-step guide.