Department of Defense Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer John Sherman relays an important message for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2020

Transcript

Hello. I’m John Sherman, Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Department of Defense. Secretary Esper kicked off National Cybersecurity Awareness Month last week with an important message on the role each of us plays when it comes to effective cyber defense. We must remain vigilant online in both our personal and professional lives in order to protect sensitive information for the department. Let’s talk a little more about protecting ourselves and the department online. If you connect it, you must protect it. We all must protect the devices we use daily, from our laptops and mobile devices all the way to weapon systems. We all play a vital role in securing this tools and capabilities. The annual cybersecurity awareness training will provide current information on the best and most useful tips and guidance for staying safe and secure online. I definitely encourage you all to stay current on the training. Additionally, cybersecurity remains a key component within the DOD Digital Modernization Strategy which also focuses on cloud, artificial intelligence, command, control and communications, known as C3 and data. This strategy will ensure that cybersecurity is baked in to every system and mission at the department. This year, we have started to implement a new cyber scorecard which will directly link the cyber hygiene health of critical systems and platforms with a specific individual and organization who holds responsibility. This new effort will ensure that critical cyber vulnerabilities are proactively addressed. As always, our key objective here at the department is to promote a technological advantage over our adversaries and ensure that cyber risk will not negatively impact our missions and the war fighters. We never plan to be in a fair fight in future conflicts and ensuring across the board cybersecurity will deny adversaries an advantage that we can mitigate right now. Finally, the bottom line is whether you are working from your kitchen table, The Pentagon or at a base down range, you hold the key to being cyber smart. Do your part to protect systems and devices, it starts with you. Thank you. (soft music)