Federal Manager's Daily Report

“Hardening” the federal cybersecurity workforce is among the top priorities of Gen. Gregory Touhill, recently installed as the government’s first chief information security officer.

“Through our Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy we are leveraging targeted education, training and exercises; improved recruiting and hiring practices; retention and development of highly skilled talent; and innovative best practices to heighten cyber risk awareness, that will help our workforce become “hard targets” that understand their roles and responsibilities and techniques that properly employ best practices to better protect the people’s information,” he said in a blog post.

“Throughout my  career in military and federal service, and a few stints in the private industry, one of the most important lessons I have learned is cybersecurity is much more than just a technology fix—rather it is a risk management issue. When we focus exclusively on the technology we sometimes miss the real goal, which is managing the risk to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information the technology supports,” he added.

Also a priority, he said, is treating information as an asset, “something we in the federal government recognize and are incorporating into our risk-based approach to cybersecurity. For example, as part of the [cybersecurity national action plan], agencies are taking action to identify their high-value information assets and better align protective measures to manage risk while delivering results that are effective, efficient, and secure.”

“Across all departments and agencies, we need to give our senior leaders the actionable business case information they need to plan, program and budget so that we can rapidly deliver innovative solutions that are effective, efficient, and secure,” he added.