DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE
The concept of Zero Trust is a North Star concept , she explains .
“ What we ’ re trying to do is deliver a more secure but also simplified warfighting environment today . We have way too many networks and way too many systems that are really following an old model of protection . And in some cases that makes us vulnerable .
“ In a lot of cases , it makes it really hard to use the systems . You have to be very welltrained to do basic things in certain instances . And so we want it to just be much easier for our warfighters to do basic things like login once and be able to get into everything that you need to get into .
“ The most important thing to me is getting to a future world where we can fight in one warfighting environment with our joint partners and our allies .”
The third Line of Effort is around the workforce , involving taking care of all of the people that are the most important investment in our warfighting enterprise , and ensuring they are equipped with digital skills .
“ Our digital university has been a great enabler there because our curriculum is always updating as fast as industry can possibly deliver ,” Knausenberger says . “ We have a variety of different digital pathways through there . And so whatever it is that an airman or a guardian wants to learn , they can go and learn and we can see what their skill sets are . And when we need something for the fight , we can very easily see who has a skill set that we can bring to bear .”
LoE four is portfolio management , based around ensuring dollars are spent efficiently and effectively , focused on a return on cybersecurity and mission performance , while the fifth LoT is excellence in core IT and mission-enabling services . “ That ’ s really the tech stack , making sure that we ’ re delivering the services that people need to do their jobs .
“ Coming into this job I said I ’ d plan on doing two years . I ’ m coming up on three ”
LAUREN KNAUSENBERGER CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER , DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE
102 June 2023