How to improve cybersecurity through acquisition

February 18, 2014 — This week on “Federal Tech Talk”, we take a look at cybersecurity from acquisition perspective.

In studio we have Emile Monette, the senior advisor for Cybersecurity, GSA Office of Mission Assurance, and Carter Schoenberg, director of Cyber Security Services at CALIBRE Systems.

In January the GSA released a report on “Improving Cybersecurity and Resiliency through Acquisition”.

The idea is quite simple, before an acquisition is made, a thorough consideration of its security implications should be taken into account.

During the interview Monette brings up the fact that the commercial world has 85% of the critical infrastructure.

The federal government must take the lead in building security from the ground up.

One of the industry participants in the repost was Carter Schoenberg.

He expands upon the cyber requirements, the lack of a single standard, and the need to ramp up knowledge of the contracting officer.

Schoenberg refers to the 237 controls that are a part of NIST 800-53.

The interview concludes with the observation that billions are spent on cybersecurity every year but the risk posture of the federal government is not improving proportionally.