Dana Barnes, senior vice president of Public Sector business for Palo Alto Networks, has been named a 2022 Wash100 Award winner for his visionary leadership and drive for zero trust implementation in the federal sector as well as cybersecurity advancement and the internet of things security capabilities for our future.
Executive Mosaic is pleased to recognize GovCon Expert Dana Barnes as a Wash100 Award recipient for the second consecutive year. The first time that he won a Wash100, the most prestigious award in all of government contracting (GovCon), in 2021, Barnes was recognized for driving digital transformation and his leadership across the technology and GovCon sectors.
Visit Wash100.com to cast a vote for Dana Barnes as one of your TEN votes to advocate for your favorite leaders in the federal and government sectors.
Most recently, Barnes shared his thoughts on the recent Federal Zero Trust Strategy that was released by the current administration in January to ensure all federal agencies are using a common cybersecurity roadmap to build all aspects of our cyber future.
Dana Barnes explained it as a huge milestone to ensure our future strategy for cyber as well as the importance of network visibility, asset discovery, cloud adoption and endpoint-based detection.
“From SolarWinds to the recent Log4j vulnerability, protecting federal organizations from the most serious cyber threats calls for a modernized approach to security. Organizations are only as strong as their weakest link when it comes to cybersecurity,” Barnes continued.
During a recent Executive Spotlight interview, Barnes discussed the challenges that emerging technologies are creating for the federal workforce and training, as well the latest news regarding cloud capabilities in the company’s IT modernization efforts and zero-trust implementation.
During the interview with ExecutiveBiz, Barnes stated the following:
“Zero Trust is more of an approach rather than a product. Zero Trust architectures should focus on enabling end-to-end least privilege,” explained. “At its core, Zero Trust is about building resiliency and ensuring that our federal customers can execute against their mission even during a cyber attack. This has become even more crucial to our federal partners.”
In addition, Palo Alto Networks announced the release of its latest IoT Security Report detailing the responses and results, from 1,900 IT leaders across a wide range of organizations across 18 countries, regarding the latest internet of things trends and major security issues as a result of the recent pandemic.
“The Palo Alto Networks IoT Security report is a stark warning that agency cybersecurity postures must extend to the home office and personal devices of all kinds,” said GovCon Expert Dana Barnes.
One of the key insights from the report showed that 78 percent of information technology decision-makers saw an increase in the number of IoT security incidents driven by the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, 96 percent of respondents said they believe their organization’s IoT security approach needs improvement.
Visit PaloAltoNetworks.com and read the full Connected Enterprise: IoT Security Report 2021 to learn more about what Dana Barnes had to say about federal agencies needing the best practices and tools for cybersecurity and other measures to ensure protection for federal employees at the office and home.
Under his leadership, Barnes was also instrumental in Palo Alto Networks receiving moderate-level certification under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) for the company’s cloud-based security platform.
The company’s Prima Access helps government agencies protect their remote employees from cyberthreats by providing secure connectivity while ensuring compliance with the Trusted Internet Connection 3.0 program.
“Now, we are seeing an evolution towards a permanent hybrid workforce, calling for the increased need to adopt a Zero Trust security approach,” said Barnes. “Prisma Access provides agencies with the tools they need to securely enable their teams to work from anywhere with the high performance they demand to be successful.”
Executive Mosaic is proud to recognize Palo Alto Networks and Dana Barnes for being named a 2022 Wash100 Award recipient. As a first time winner of the most coveted award in GovCon, GovCon Expert Dana Barnes has demonstrated a level of success and recognition that can only be recognized by the Wash100 Award and the GovCon community.
Visit Wash100.com to vote for Dana Barnes and who you believe deserves the recognition as the most significant leader to the GovCon community and federal landscape.
