Financial-sector activities – such as consumer and commercial banking, funding, liquidity, and insurance services – were identified by the Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as National Critical Functions. Those functions are so vital to the United States that any disruption, corruption, or dysfunction would have a debilitating effect on U.S. security, the national economy, and/or pub...

Five months ago, the Administration took bold steps to improve the nation’s cybersecurity and protect federal government networks from sophisticated, malicious cyber activity from both nation-state actors and cyber criminals. Modernizing national cybersecurity defenses has never been more critical. The executive order followed cyberattacks that were a sobering reminder of the vulnerability and the impact of these attacks. This panel will...

The Office of Management and Budget recently released interim regulations outlining the pathway agencies can pursue to bar companies from Federal contracting when they constitute a supply chain security risk. Connections to adversarial foreign governments represent an unacceptable risk of espionage through back doors placed in their products or by the companies routing data to home countries where foreign laws may make it easier to access them...

Federal agencies are facing ever more sophisticated adversaries and threats that place our privacy, our economy, and our Nation at risk.These cyber threats are diverse and include the prevalence of malicious actors who operate globally at will; the growth of risks from the Internet of Things, and increasingly complex networks, all elevating the security and resilience of cyberspace to a critical homeland security imperative. Exacerbating these...

The annual AFFIRM Leadership Awards Celebration is the recognition of outstanding leadership in the Federal Government since 1979. The AFFIRM Leadership Awards are among the most prestigious of the Federal community, honoring individual and team outstanding leadership from the preceding year. First awarded in 1979, award honorees join a prestigious list of agency executives and managers. Awards are for demonstrated leadership leading to succe...