Michael Baker, staff VP and chief information security officer at General Dynamics Information Technology, served as the moderator for an expert panel discussion during the Potomac Officers Club’ 2021 CMMC Forum on Wednesday.
The following panelists discussed cybersecurity maturity in an era of mounting vulnerabilities featuring Karlton Johnson of the CMMC Accreditation Body, Ron Lear of ISACA-CMMI Institute, Jeffery Miller of Accenture Federal Service and Armando Seay of Maryland Innovation and Security Institute.
If you missed the 2021 CMMC Forum, you can still access the OnDemand footage by visiting the Potomac Officers Club Event Archive.
Karlton Johnson, chairman of the CMMC Accreditation Body also delivered the Forum’s keynote address. In his address, Johnson provided an overview and his perspective of the CMMC rollout as well as how private industry benefits from robust cybersecurity systems. Kristie Grinnell, VP and Global CIO of General Dynamics, introduced Johnson before his keynote address.
After the keynote, Ron Lear, senior director of the ISACA-CMMI Institute, opened the discussion by expressing the need for government and industry to shift to a more system-based cybersecurity approach with a clear sense of urgency. Lear also stressed that a whole government comprehensive plan is the only way to give cybersecurity the high-level priority required to protect against increasingly sophisticated attacks.
In his remarks, Jeffery Miller, managing director of Accenture Federal Service, said that the CMMC could learn a lot from traditional supply chain processes. He said they both heavily involve risk management and the ability to prevent and mitigate risk at all times. He also remarked that both CMMC and supply chain success is dependent on collaboration, transparency and a well-trained workforce.
Armando Seay, co-founder and board member of Maryland Innovation and Security Institute (MISI), talked about the training aspects that are important for evolving organizations so they can be CMMC certified. He stressed that training must be quickly put into action because there are constantly active cyber threats.
Seay also commented that MISI is currently working on secure, reliable and robust direct sharing capabilities that allow classified data to be safely transferred between different organizations.
Karlton Johnson discussed the issue of scalability for government and private industry and the need for cybersecurity to be optimized at scale to be effective. He also stated that within the next 100 days, his focus is to communicate the soon-to-be-released government cybersecurity requirements to private industry and assist them with their cybersecurity roll-outs.
If you missed the 2021 CMMC Forum, you can still access the OnDemand footage by visiting the Potomac Officers Club Events Archive.
Join us for the next event on June 30th, when the Potomac Officers Club will host its Trusted Workforce Forum. Visit PotomacOfficersClub.com to register for the Trusted Workforce Forum on June 30th.
William Lietzau, director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), will serve as the keynote speaker. He will discuss his first 100 days at DCSA, vision for developing a secure, trusted workforce, upcoming major initiatives and how private industry can help secure our national security.
