Balancing the Need for Cybersecurity with the Desire for Innovation

The commission on enhancing national cybersecurity addressed the growing need to balance innovation and cybersecurity.

The report stated:

“Our commitment to cybersecurity must match our commitment to innovation. If our digital economy is to thrive, it must be secure. That means that every enterprise in our society—large and small companies, government at all levels, educational institutions, and individuals—must be more purposefully and effectively engaged in addressing cyber risks.”

The commission made several recommendations, including one that focuses on how regulatory agencies could harmonize existing and future regulations with the Cybersecurity Framework to focus on risk management—reducing industry’s cost of complying with prescriptive or conflicting regulations that may not aid cybersecurity and may unintentionally discourage rather than incentivize innovation.

The Trump administration has picked up on many of these same themes. It has created the Office of American Innovation to improve federal agency services. The cybersecurity executive order focuses on risk management, IT modernization and improving the way agencies securely meet their missions.

For many agencies and organizations, the intersection of cybersecurity and innovation is all about risk.

As HHS CIO Beth Killoran said recently, her  role, like many CIOs and other a federal technology executives, is to be a risk mitigator.

CIOs can set the vision and bring the right technology to their organization that lets innovation flourish. This means a modern, usually cloud based infrastructure that can securely support innovations.

But it’s not just about the CIO. Agencies need a cross-functional team that includes the mission area, finance, HR, acquisition and many others that can make risk-based decisions on how to push their mission area forward.

Moderator

Jason Miller

Jason Miller is a reporter whose work focuses mainly on technology and procurement issues, including cybersecurity, e-government and acquisition policies and programs.

Panelists

Renee Wynn, Chief Information Officer, NASA

Renee Wynn is the NASA Chief Information Officer. Wynn joined NASA in July 2015 as the Deputy Chief Information Officer. She came to NASA from the Environmental Protection Agency where she had served as the Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information since July 2013. Ms. Wynn has a long career in the federal government. She had been with EPA for more than 24 years, and joined the Office of Environmental Information in April 2011. Beyond the experience she gained since joining the information management and technology arm of the Agency, Ms. Wynn served in EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

Ms. Wynn has managed program administration for science, information management, and international programs; regulatory management; budget formulation and execution; contracts, grants and interagency agreements; long term strategic planning and analyses; and environmental and administrative policy.

Ms. Wynn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from DePauw University, Indiana.

Captain Michael Dickey, Commander, U.S. Coast Guard C4IT Service Center

Captain Dickey USCG, is the Commander of the Coast Guard’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Information Technology Service Center (C4ITSC). In his current role Captain Dickey is responsible for overseeing the development and management of all C4IT Services for the Coast Guard.

Captain Dickey graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1990. From 1994 to 1996 he attended graduate school at the University of Illinois where he earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering.

Captain Dickey has held a variety of challenging assignments in both Coast Guard operations and mission support, including: Operations officer, Executive Officer and Commanding officer of Coast Guard Cutters, project manager at the Coast Guard Research and Development Center, and Command of Electronic System Support Unit Cleveland and the Telecommunication and Information Systems Command (TISCOM).

In 2001 he was selected for assignment to the White House Communications Agency where he managed the first significant modernization of communications systems in 15 years. Most recently Captain Dickey served as the Deputy Commander of Coast Guard Cyber Command.

Captain Dickey’s military awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, three Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medals, four Commendation Medals, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Coast Guard Achievement Medal, and the Coast Guard Letter of Commendation.

Angie Heise, Civil Group President, Leidos

Angela Heise is President of the Civil Group at Leidos. In this capacity, she is responsible for providing solutions to US Cabinet-level civil agencies and major elements of the public and private sector across the globe. Focus areas include air traffic automation, energy and the environment, federal infrastructure and logistics, IT and cybersecurity, and transportation security. Prior to this role, Heise served as vice president of Commercial Markets for Lockheed Martin-Commercial Cyber, where she was responsible for delivery of a portfolio of cybersecurity and information technology solutions and services to commercial Global 1000 customers.

Heise graduated from Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science in computer science. She was recognized in 2012 as Aviation Week’s Top 40 under 40 and in 2013 was one of Federal Computing Week’s Top 100 Executives.

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