FBI cyber security, secure cloud and how they respond to cyber threats
Macquarie Government this month had the opportunity to host Gordon Bitko, the CIO of the FBI, on behalf of the American Chamber of Commerce. I had the opportunity to sit down with Gordon, who agreed to take my questions and those of members of the audience. As CIO, Gordon is supporting the FBI’s 50,000 employees, partners, and contractors; provides oversight of almost $1.5B in annual expenditures; and has a team of more than 5,000 FBI information technology personnel.
The secure cloud challenges for the FBI.
Gordon spoke about issues ranging from the challenges of information sharing between US law enforcement and security agencies post 911, the challenge of digital transformation in a large and geographically diverse organisation and his approach as a CIO to IT as a tool for an organisation to do its job – I his case, support the FBI’s field agents and investigators in identifying and catching perpetrators of crime.
Gordon Bitko the Chief Information Officer (CIO) from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) talking about cyber security secure cloud to attendees at this Macquarie Government hosted event.
The FBI’s stance on cyber security secure cloud.
Mr Bitko talks about the challenges to meet the need for speed, securing the data and the needs of the mission against accessing information. The CIO’s team adopts “the carrot and stick approach” which manages and chooses from the various cloud solutions available to the organisation. You “don’t need to go build and buy your own technology” instead Mr Bitko’s team encourages using companies that have all of that for you. That way you focus on securing the data and the accessing it when you need to.
While Gordon is clearly in a unique organisation with elevated pressures and responsibilities, his reflections struck a chord with many of the conversations I have had with the CIO’s of our government client organisations. While we could not get Gordon to Canberra, we were able to provide the next best thing, and a video of Gordon’s cyber security secure cloud presentation is available here.
About Macquarie Government: Macquarie Government is a division of the Macquarie Technology Group (ASX MAQ). It provides services to Federal and State Government agencies, including Secure Internet and Secure Cloud services.
