GovCast

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.

Last month the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot to encourage AI cooperation and innovation as part of the White House’s executive order to advance AI. The pilot comprises a partnership with 10 federal agencies and 19 industry organizations.

Tess deBlanc-Knowles, NSF’s special assistant to the director for AI, joins GovCast to discuss how partnerships strengthen the NAIRR pilot, how it is democratizing access to AI research and how shepherding AI leadership can open more doors for the federal government, industry and academic community more broadly.

The White House’s Better Contracting Initiative aims to ensure the federal government is getting the best prices on services through acquisition.

The government spent more than $77 billion dollars on federal IT contracting last year, so saving money for government and ultimately taxpayers is among one of the initiative’s top priorities.

Laura Stanton, assistant commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Category at the General Service Administration's Federal Acquisition Service, discusses the next phase of the initiative and how it will impact the IT contracting landscape in the long run.

President Joe Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence requires agencies to name chief artificial intelligence officers (CAIO). Some agencies with longstanding AI experience have named CAIOs, while others are still in the process of naming their officials.

Managing Editor Ross Gianfortune and Staff Writer/Researcher Jordan McDonald analyze the state of CAIOs and the future of AI officials.

The U.S. Digital Corps started out as an idea to help strengthen the federal tech workforce and was borne in August 2021 out of a collaboration between the White House, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Services to transform hiring tech talent.

Since then, it has placed more than 80 early-career tech and cybersecurity professionals at dozens of agencies through a two-year fellowship program.

U.S. Digital Corps Founder and Director Caitlin Gandhi speaks about its history and successes, how IT hiring is changing in government and the impact fellows are having at agencies writ large.

The Department of Homeland Security is developing a new workforce plan to bring in technical talent through initiatives like a new IT Academy.

Executive Director of IT Operations Chris Granger discusses how these efforts and more are part of a broader plan at DHS to improve its services make them more equitable and accessible.

Granger dives into the agency’s strategic plan for the next four years and how technologies like artificial intelligence will support initiatives to improve the supply chain and even support missions to locate and rescue victims of online child sexual exploitation.

CISA’s “secure by design” framework is helping software manufacturers bake cybersecurity into products as part of an effort to implement the National Cyber Strategy that the White House released earlier this year. Cybersecurity has traditionally been treated as an afterthought in technology. CISA wants to change that.

CISA Senior Advisor Lauren Zabierek discusses what it means to be secure by design, what the new framework outlines and what it means for vendors and the development community. You’ll hear more about the framework’s three principles:

• Take ownership of customer security outcomes.

• Embrace radical transparency and accountability.

• Lead from the top.

For more secure by design resources:

• CISA’s Secure By Design: https://www.cisa.gov/securebydesign

• Secure by Design white paper: https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/secure-by-design

• CISA’s Case for Memory Safe Roadmaps: https://www.cisa.gov/case-memory-safe-roadmaps

GovCast had a banner year in 2023, featuring dozens of interviews with federal IT leaders, officials and experts. We take a look back at the year’s work around AI, zero-trust implementation and many other issues and topics facing all IT staffs throughout government.

On this year-end episode of GovCast, Managing Editor Ross Gianfortune, and Staff Writers Jayla Whitfield and Jordan McDonald as they reflect on the most memorable episodes and themes of 2023.

Featured conversations include:

1:00: Brian Mazanec, Deputy Director, Office of Preparedness in the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response

5:15: Will Cahoe, 10x Program Communications Lead, GSA

9:00: Wayne Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal and Cyber Division, FBI Washington Field Office

13:00: Francis O’Hearn, CIO, U.S. Mint

14:45: Melvin Brown II, Deputy CIO, Office of Personnel Management

Former Federal Deputy CTO Jennifer Pahlka who helped found the U.S. Digital Service and other major technology programs like the Presidential Innovation Fellows has ideas for how government can leverage the opportunities in technology to advance critical services for the public.

Often there is a gap between policy and implementation, especially in digital government, which can slow down modernization. But agencies can reevaluate how they provide benefits and services to the public online and strategize the evolution of digital services.

Pahlka, who also wrote the book “Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better,” discusses these strategies as well as where culture and innovation fits in the future digital age for government.

This episode we're diving into some defense technology perspectives, specifically for the Indo-Pacific region.

We recently had the opportunity to connect with leaders at the AFCEA TechNet Indo-Pacific conference in Honolulu where they shared how they're thinking about the quickly changing landscape and what it means for defense programs, software factories, cloud modernization and data centricity.

Featured interviews include:

Rob Vietmeyer, Chief Software Officer at DOD. https://governmentciomedia.com/dod-software-chief-breaks-down-tech-shifts-pacific-region

Sharon Woods, Director of DISA's Hosting and Compute Center. https://governmentciomedia.com/disa-hac-director-shares-commercial-cloud-capability-progress-indo-pacific

Andrew Hong, Deputy Director of Cyber Portfolio, Defense Innovation Unit. https://governmentciomedia.com/diu-brings-new-mindset-defense-technology

Indopacom CIO Gen. Mark Miles. https://governmentciomedia.com/indopacom-cio-looks-data-centricity-assured-command-and-control

Part of tackling defense and national security challenges requires engaging academia, developing the workforce, and bringing in the next commercial technical capability or process. That’s the aim of the Technology Advancement Center, a nonprofit innovating around some of the Pentagon’s toughest cybersecurity and technology challenges.

CEO Gregg Smith, a longstanding technology leader, discusses how the organization fits into some of the Defense Department’s newest strategies such as those around artificial intelligence and zero trust. He also discusses his goals for TAC as it works with smaller organizations working at every angle of innovation to teach them how to do business with the government and bring new solutions into agencies like the U.S. Cyber Command, National Security Agency, DISA and more.