The United States spent $554 billion in discretionary contracts for goods and services during FY18, covering the gamut from janitorial services to hand grenades. This number ranks higher than Sweden’s gross domestic product, as well as 165 other countries’ GDP.

This month, DLT sat down with James Ebeler, the Chief Technology Officer, Department of Defense, for Iron Bow Technologies. In this interview, James discusses the cybersecurity challenges facing our military and how Iron Bow is helping solve them with innovative solutions.

DLT: Good morning, James. Thanks for joining us today for this interview.

James: Good morning, happy to be here.

DLT: Fantastic, let’s dive right in. First, can you tell us about your role at Iron Bow Technologies?

The DoD Cybersecurity Strategy https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2018/09/19/department-of-defense-unveils-new-cyber-strategy/ stresses nine key points. With the end of FFYE looming, are you aligning your spending with these objectives?

A survey of Department of Defense employees commissioned by DLT partner, Veritas, and conducted by Federal Computer Week found that 46% of respondents agree that data drives all or most of their decisions (58%), yet only 13% would rate their data management capabilities as “Excellent” while 60% rate them as “Satisfactory” or “Poor”.

Challenges Across Each Stage of Data Life Cycle

Federal IT pros are facing “Herculean tasks” when it comes to security challenges, a new survey conducted by DLT partner, SolarWinds, reveals.

Could the technology that powers shadowy online cryptocurrencies used by terrorists, cyber criminals, and money launderers soon be deployed by the Department of Defense?

Security has become one of the biggest IT challenges in the last 20 years. Regulations, threats, and the many different ways in which adversaries can gain access to sensitive network infrastructures, particularly within the Department of Defense (DoD), have spurred cyber priorities and strategic goals. These include defending the DoD information network, securing DoD data, and mitigating risks to DoD missions (Strategic Goal II) while being prepared to defend the U.S.

Net-centric and data-centric warfare is transforming how warfighters conduct operations. Data from satellite feeds, remote sensors, ship manifests, etc. depend on secure and quality data to inform intelligence-based decision-making.

FedRAMP (The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) is changing. By the end of 2015, FedRAMP, aka the FISMA for the cloud, is anticipated to add high-impact cloud systems (it currently only authorizes low- and moderate-impact levels).

While only 12% of all federal systems are labeled as high impact (mostly DoD and DHS), as more agencies move to use cloud services, the need for a high-impact baseline standard is growing.

The Need for Clarity about FedRAMP Processes

The “Internet of Things” isn’t exactly a new concept, Kevin Ashton coined the term the Internet of Things as far back as 1999. Now, 15 years later, the Department of Defense (DoD) is eager to exploit it.

What is the Internet of Things?