Following the opening keynote address from Jeff Nigriny, president and founder of CertiPath where he detailed the importance of digital identity and credentialing in today’s day and age, GovConWire’s “How to Increase Cybersecurity and Return on Investment of Existing PIV Infrastructure for Cross-Agency Encryption” Webinar moved onto its next keynote speaker.
Mike Horkey, founder and CEO of Tru-Concepts LLC and the webinar’s moderator, introduced Kyle Neuman, managing director of SAFE Identity as the second keynote speaker. Horkey noted his drive for innovation in cryptography, blockchain, key management as well as his passion for developing our digital capabilities for our future.
Neuman wanted to pick up right where Jeff Nigriny left off previously with testing programs. He mentioned access control and digital signatures again, but specifically noted that encryption has not been heavily used by the U.S. federal government. In fact, federal agencies have already bought and paid for the capabilities, yet they haven’t been used properly
According to Neuman, 95 percent of email servers are composed of data from file attachments and additional files. What’s interesting is 87 percent of those people using email to upload and transfer their files, even across federal agencies, are senior managers uploading business files.
Encryption allows at least some security from cybersecurity attacks from within our government agencies to not only ensure that information can be shared across our agencies, but aren’t being taken and used to put our nation at a disadvantage.
Neuman broke down the problems that exist within portal-based email protection and why it doesn’t actually address the real problem, but ignores it. He was more enthusiastic about rights management service, but that too had issues with access and created more hoops than answers.
The ideal state of email encryption would allow for specific keys to provide access to the people that need the information without having to sacrifice security or adding steps to complicate the process more.
Neuman also broke down the barriers to adoption. The first being that trust is a challenge as well as discovering identities between organizations. He gave a preview for the keynote addresses still to come from Dr. Chris Edwards and Sam Andoni discussing encryption across devices, ease of use and management of encrypted data.
With those foreshadowing words, Neuman ended his keynote address.
Stay tuned for future GovConWire events! On Aug. 27th, GovConWire will host its Business Development Forum to discuss the latest trends in Business Development (BD). Click here to register for the event.
Featuring Stephanie Shutt from the General Services Administration (GSA) as the keynote speaker, this webinar will dive into current BD trends, tips for securing contracts and FY21 federal budget projections. Don’t miss out on this must see forum!
