Live from HIMSS - Former VA CIO Jim Gfrerer Reflects on Public Service, Essential Partnerships for Driving Innovation

Mitigating cross sector risks and recognizing vulnerabilities in the supply chain remain top priorities for the National Risk Management Center (NRMC) at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

NRMC Assistant Director Mona Harrington said the team of experts is responsible for creating realistic and actionable recommendations to manage risk to the global information and communications technology supply chain. Harrington said NRMC also utilizes the Secure Tomorrow Toolkit to help stakeholders get a better understanding of the future threat landscape across the information domain.

She also highlighted the agency's use of artificial intelligence as well as the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative’s work to reduce the nation's cybersecurity risk.

This episode is sponsored by Zscaler.

The Pentagon is undergoing a robust plan to create a foundation for its AI-enabled capabilities that include data infrastructure and management, platforms, processes and, of course, people. Leading this charge is the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO), which is working toward a number of deliverables this year around many of these aspects.

CDAO Digital Talent Management Office Chief Angela Cough discusses the ways in which she works across departments and the broader Defense Industrial Base to create the AI workforce of the future. She highlights some of the tools and skills employees will need now to be successful in the age of AI.

The National Cancer Institute is utilizing a host of new technologies to diagnose and detect cancer thanks to its Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) and Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) programs. These programs are developing methods that are enhancing cancer research, including artificial intelligence.

Dr. Kelly Crotty, program director for NCI’s Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives, said not only have the programs helped researchers better identify and screen for cancer, but also they’ve been instrumental in driving progress in clinical care. Crotty also shares updates about NCI’s Liquid Biopsy Consortium and discusses the benefits and challenges she’s seeing with AI.

Partnerships play a critical part of the innovation work across the Defense Department. The complex global threat landscape, in both the kinetic and cybersecurity domains, requires partnerships to solve some of the most pressing national security challenges.

Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare Jennifer Edgin discussed at AFCEA West the ways her office is leveraging partnerships, using emerging technology and modernizing its systems.

The U.S. Marine Corps is in the middle of modernizing its networks into a single enterprise network to improve identity management and services. The team is upgrading software and hardware to improve latency and cybersecurity, and is leveraging artificial intelligence as part of these modernization plans.

At AFCEA West, Shery Thomas, cyber technology officer at the Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command, discusses the state of the Marines' network modernization and the ways his teams are ensuring the network is accessible and secure against future threats.

Metrics are critical to assessing a contract's or program's success in IT procurement at the Navy. Measuring success can be difficult without these clear parameters.

Justin Fanelli, acting CTO at the Department of the Navy and technical director at Navy PEO Digital and Enterprise Services, discussed with us at AFCEA West the ways in which the Navy is measuring program success. He said when a program does not work, inertia needs to be fought. "When something moves, we take it down," he said.

He also highlights how the Navy is encouraging more entrants into the acquisition process and how the Navy partners with industry to scale innovation.

Leveraging the next generation’s digital skill sets, comfort with technology and innovation is key to the Marine Corps' vision for its future software-savvy workforce. Lt. Col. Charlie Bahk, director of the Marine Corps Software Factory launched last year, tells GovCIO Media and research at AFCEA West that “all you have to do is just kind of get out of the way a little bit.”

Bahk also discusses the evolution of the Marine Corps Software Factory as it nears its one-year anniversary, challenges he foresees in developing software capabilities for warfighters and the value of collaboration and resourcefulness in software development.

The Navy’s systems and data operations exist in a challenging environment that requires strong identity management to secure threats,  partnerships across the Defense Department and technology innovation.

At AFCEA West, Navy CIO Jane Rathbun discusses how the service is avoiding common pain points in modernization and introducing more structure, data and flexibility. She also highlights how the service is thinking about innovation and mixing traditional with new approaches to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving technology landscape.

The Defense Department is undergoing largescale modernization efforts that require close attention to building the infrastructure that delivers information quickly, but also securely. Digital transformation in government requires a mindset that considers all aspects of the organization, partners and stakeholders.

While at AFCEA West in San Diego, Equinix Senior Director of Segment Marketing for the Americas D.R. Carlson sat down with us to discuss the common pain points organizations experience in digital transformation journeys, how AI can aid modernization and the ways to bridge legacy and new systems — plus what this all means for defense organizations.

Cyber threats from China have been the subject of recent high-profile Congressional hearings lately. Analyst Jack Corrigan from Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) spoke to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Feb. 1 about the risks that Chinese information and communications technology and services (ICTS) have on U.S. national security and critical infrastructure.

Corrigan joins CyberCast to break down these threats and what they mean for government agencies, what CIOs can do about them and the role of procurement regulations in strengthening those defenses.