Federal CIO Tony Scott, on how to implement FITARA, the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act:
“There is some element to learn from what went on before, no doubt about that,” Scott told Federal News Radio. “But from my perspective, it’s all about how do we land this the right way, and on the one hand implement the law and the law is very clear in its intent, but it’s also how that lands and how a small agency, a big agency or a complex agency can make it work most effectively. That’s really where the dialogue has been over the last several months, and what we hope to bolster with this public comment period.”
Attorney General Loretta Lynch on making cybersecurity one of her top priorities at the Justice Department:
“We can protect the growing cyber world,” she said in her remarks, which were reported by Bloomberg’s Del Quentin Wilber. “We can give those in our care both protection from terrorism and the security of their civil liberties.”
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on making “better information sharing with the private sector” his top cybersecurity priority:
“We have a program right now… to better automate our information sharing to make it faster,” Johnson told the Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, according to Politico. Nonetheless, improvements are needed – “something that gives the private sector a well-known, primary portal for sharing cyber threat information.”
Federal CTO Megan Smith on women not getting credit for their contributions to technology:
“There’s these incredible photographs from the launch of the Macintosh in the 80s, and there’s the Rolling Stone pictures that were published,” she told Charlie Rose. “And so the historic record shows this group … [of] seven men and four women. And every photograph you see with the Mac team — Joanna Hoffman, who was the product manager, a great teammate of Steve Jobs; Susan Kare did all the graphics and user interface, artist side – none of them made it into the Jobs movie in the Mac scene. They’re not even cast. And every man in the photographs is in the movie with a speaking role. It’s debilitating to our young women to have their history almost erased or uncalled.”
Veterans Affairs CIO Stephen Warren on defending the VA against cyber attacks:
“At some point we’re not going to be able to knock this back,” he said in a press conference reported by Aaron Boyd at Federal Times. “Any agency will reach a point where it gets overwhelmed.”
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