David McKeown, the Department of Defense’s chief information security officer (CISO) and deputy chief information officer (CIO), has looked on the industry for cybersecurity technologies to defend defense networks.
He shared that his agency needs help from private-sector companies to bake in cybersecurity on tools and networks to replace its current practice of purchasing defense capabilities as an add-on feature, DOD said Friday.
Speaking at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit, McKeown conceded that the historically secure Pentagon still has a spot malicious actors can exploit given the sheer number of devices connected to defense networks.
He pointed out that the industry provides better security solutions, noting an effort in which DOD tapped Microsoft to help secure defense personnel’s transition to a cloud environment.
The official also shared that DOD will continue to adopt technologies of different types from the industry, including those that can be purchased at scale and those that can be overlaid on top of its network infrastructure.
“We want to meet with industry, we want to know what they have, but we do want them to be cognizant of the fact that we really kind of demand a secure solution coming in the door,” explained McKeown.