Chuck Brooks, an esteemed member of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program, as well as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, has interviewed Kelley Kiernan, the chief technology officer of the Department of the Navy’s Small Business Innovation Research Program and the director of the Blue Cyber Initiative. The conversation was published in ExecutiveBiz on Monday.
The pair talked about the Blue Cyber Initiative’s unique and boundary-pushing efforts to offer outreach and education about cybersecurity to the general public, with Kiernan detailing how the project got off the ground as well as previewing what might be next to come in its operations.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Brooks: How does Blue Cyber help small businesses?
Kiernan: Blue Cyber answers basic cybersecurity questions, provides educational material on cybersecurity concepts, such as encryption and cybersecurity standards. As mentioned, Blue Cyber also has daily office hours to listen to the small business’ struggles on their journey to protect their intellectual property and financials, and sometimes, sensitive Department of Defense information. Blue Cyber ferrets out the grants and free services being offered mostly by state entities, such as the Procurement Technical Assistance offices and National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Program Centers in each state and refers the small businesses to these resources.
Brooks will be an introducer and the moderator of a panel between public and private sector representatives during GovCon Wire’s Defending the Homeland: Science & Technology Forum tomorrow, April 18. Register here for this informative symposium on how commercial and federal partnerships are working to fortify our national defenses via technology. You won’t be disappointed.