The U.S. Air Force (USAF) is seeking ways to implement IT Transformation by leveraging cloud and mobile to drive improvements in its cybersecurity investments. USAF Deputy CIO Bill Marion outlined various strategic goals that using cloud and mobile can help attain if implemented properly.
“It’s not about these technologies driving risk – it’s that if you do it improperly, it drives risk. If you do it properly, it drives improvements in your section or your platform,” Marion said at the Thales Data Security Summit today.
Through these technologies and utilizing industry best practices, USAF hopes to undergo an IT transformation that provides standardized, innovative, and agile IT services. Through this mission, USAF wants to:
- Enhance the user experience;
- Focus on mission assurance;
- Enable the use of data as a strategic asset; and
- Improve business process efficiencies.
Marion went on to discuss that when enabling cloud and bringing security and encryption into it, that it makes cybersecurity better and more manageable when a focus is put on risk.
“I always joke, it’s taking the ‘F’ out of ‘RMF,’” Marion exclaimed amongst laughter from the crowd when talking about Risk Management Framework and the cloud.
To parlay this mission into policy, Marion also discussed how imperative it was to incentivize the right kinds of behavior from CIOs and CISOs to not “being just a hammer all the time” who says ‘no’ and ‘you can’t do that.’
