CyberCast

The new year began with a new White House executive order on strengthening and promoting innovation in cybersecurity, building on previous efforts, like the National Cybersecurity Strategy, to enhance the security of the nation's digital infrastructure. Looking into 2025, Deputy Assistant Director of FBI's Cyber Division Cynthia Kaiser said her division plans to leverage emerging technology like a...

CyberCast, along with GovCast and HealthCast, will now be published in the GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts feed. Subscribe and listen today on the podcast platform of your choice.

The Department of Education is kicking off the second phase of its zero trust strategy by focusing on security orchestration and automation response to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape. Education CISO Steven Hernandez discusses how the agency is tailoring its cyber tools and technologies by automating manual processes and leveraging identity, access and credential management (ICAM) solu...

Federal agencies are modernizing their cybersecurity strategies as threats continue to evolve. Faced with the National Cybersecurity Strategy, zero-trust implementation and recruiting a cyber workforce, agencies are primed for a busy 2024 in cyber and IT. Managing Editor Ross Gianfortune and Staff Writer/Researchers Nikki Henderson Whitfield and Jordan McDonald break down some of the biggest devel...

The White House released its National Cybersecurity Strategy in March and is ending the year with the first permanent National Cyber Director in nearly a year . On CyberCast, we covered it all. Take a listen back to some of the highlighted interviews with federal IT leaders, officials and experts this year as CyberCast traveled to Hawaii , California and Maryland . Our team interviewed leaders fro...

This episode we're diving into zero trust at the Defense Department. Specifically, how that is playing out for the Indo-Pacific region. We recently had the opportunity to connect with several leaders at the AFCEA TechNet Indo-Pacific conference in Honolulu where they shared with us how they're thinking about this quickly changing landscape and what it means for cybersecurity. This includes an upda...

FEMA is developing prototypes for AI use cases in cybersecurity implementation amid a White House artificial intelligence executive order that directs agencies to establish and maintain standards for safety and security of the technology. FEMA CISO Gregory Edwards discusses how the rapid pace of AI innovation is spurring partnerships across federal agencies to work together to leverage best practi...

The Environmental Protection Agency is honing in on multiple pillars from the National Cybersecurity Strategy to secure critical infrastructure at its water and waste-water operations. The agency deems water security to be national security and is an area that needs critical attention. Efforts are underway to increase cyber awareness in the water sector and ensure systems remain resilient. EPA cyb...

The U.S. Digital Corps is bringing innovation to government by placing early-career technologists at agencies. Operated by the General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS), the Corps' fellowship program gives individuals the chance to work on critical issues at the intersection of technology and public service. Digital Corps fellow Brittney Wright is on the cybers...

Bad actors accessing sensitive government data through vulnerable weak points is an ongoing concern for federal IT officials, who are making securing data a top priority amid digital modernization. Challenges in data security arise when you need to balance it with efficient data access while keeping threat actors out. In this episode, we break down some of the best practices in this area and featu...

The U.S. Digital Corps is bringing innovation to agencies through early-career technologists. Operated by the General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS), the Corps' fellowship program gives individuals the ability to find themselves working on critical issues at the intersection of technology and public service. Digital Corps fellow Jamila Crawford on the cybers...

JCDC Partnerships International, which sits within CISA's cybersecurity division, works with 150 partners worldwide with the goal of sharing and exchanging critical information allowing the U.S. to respond to cyber threats faster, protect the country's critical infrastructure more effectively and relay that information to its international counterparts to do the same. Patricia Soler, Section Chief...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is amid a cybersecurity modernization plan to put identity management and zero trust at the forefront of the biggest security threats facing technology teams. Jeff Spaeth, deputy CISO and executive director of information security operations at VA, is a bit of a boomerang. A veteran himself and longstanding cybersecurity professional, he returns to VA under a new...

In its recently released National Intelligence Strategy, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence outlines the strategic direction for the Intelligence Community (IC) over the next four years. In it, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines notes the dramatically changing environment in which the IC operates, including the IT environment. Innovation, information sharing and cyber...

The White House recently released it National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy to enhance and unleash America's cyber talent. The plan addresses the workforce needs in the public and private sectors by introducing cybersecurity concepts throughout all levels of education. The document proposes making advanced occupational training in cyber more accessible and affordable. Agencies and industr...

Military cyber leaders repeatedly say zero trust is critical, essential and integral to the Defense Department's Joint All-Domain Command-and-Control (JADC2) concept. A zero trust approach to cybersecurity helps organizations improve data security, manage users on the network and facilitate data interoperability, all key components of JADC2. Enjoy this preview of our upcoming GovFocus, "Zero Trust...

The Office of Management and Budget along with the Office of the National Cyber Director released a memo laying out cybersecurity investment areas that agencies will have to include as they make their budgetary decisions for the next fiscal year. We break down those investment areas, how it ties to the recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy and what to expect in the coming months.

Emerging technologies are proving to be very beneficial to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration when it comes to climate modeling, behavior analytics and its overall mission. Not only has automation technologies played a key role in NOAA's weather forecasting and environmental monitoring, but also machine learning has been a huge help in the areas of threat detection and vulnerability a...

Since 2018, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been on a journey to the cloud to streamline operations, drive down expenses, better protect data and improve business operations. The agency's Deputy Director of Infrastructure Operations Kendall Krebs explains how VA is looking to not only use cloud to improve the speed and quality of its application development, but also secure this digital env...

The Marine Corps is on track to being one of the most distributed forces ever with significant command, control, communications, intelligence and cyber capabilities. A unified network with modernized network equipment is critical to operating in this environment. Cyber Technology Officer Shery Thomas discusses the Marine Crops' efforts to combine networks with multiple classification levels into a...

The ultimate goal of the Army's recently established Zero Trust Functional Management Office is to have a secure unified network that is defended by a fully implemented zero trust framework that will enable multi-domain operations and accomplish the Army's missions. Col. Michael Smith, director of this office, details next steps for zero trust implementation across the enterprise to get to the goa...

The Pentagon has a cyber workforce problem: 30,000 cyber positions remain unfilled, but malicious cyber activity isn't slowing down. Defense cyber leaders warn future conflicts will combine kinetic and information warfare, elevating the importance of a robust cyber workforce. DOD Principal Director for Resources & Analysis Mark Gorak joins us live from AFCEA TechNet Cyber 2023 in Baltimore to disc...

Defense Department CIO John Sherman joins us live from TechNet Cyber 2023 in Baltimore, Maryland, to peel back the layers of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) and the department's zero trust strategy to show how they're informed by JADC2 priorities and contribute to better data transport and interoperability with coalition partners. Sherman also discusses how cloud initiatives at the m...

Live from TechNet Cyber 2023 in Baltimore, Maryland, Defense Department Deputy CIO Lily Zeleke and Chief Software Officer Rob Vietmeyer discuss software factories, DevSecOps, zero trust and the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC). These IT modernization initiatives are transforming the department to be more tech-savvy as information dominance becomes critical to winning future conflicts.

Operating and hardening the Defense Department's networks is a highly complex undertaking. Training and retaining the workforce, keeping up with a constantly changing environment of technology and emerging capabilities and threats are continuous challenges not just for the Army, but also for all the services. Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, commanding general of Army Cyber Command, discusses how Army Cybe...