Agencies Take on New Zero Trust Directives in Cybersecurity Strategies

Fri, 02/25/2022

Download the latest e-book to learn how federal agencies like NASA and the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and others are approaching zero trust within their unique missions.

Inside, hear from:

Navy Principal Cyber Advisor Chris Cleary on the Navy’s new ICAM strategy and the fundamental role identity plays in achieving a zero trust structure.
Government Accountability Office’s IT and Cybersecurity Director Jennifer Franks on implementing the cyber executive order and securing the supply chain.
NASA Cybersecurity and Privacy Division Associate CIO Mike Witt on NASA’s move to a software-defined network access structure as the agency builds the foundation for zero trust.
HHS Office of Inspector General CIO Gerald Caron on how zero trust and software supply chain risk management anchor his cyber strategy around agency audits.

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Featuring

Gerald Caron CIO, Office of the Inspector General, HHS
Gerald Caron
- CIO, Office of the Inspector General
- HHS
Gerald Caron is a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and is Chief Information Officer (CIO) / Assistant Inspector General of Information Technology (AIG/IT) for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as of May 2021.

Previously he has served as the Director of Enterprise Network Management (ENM) within the Directorate of Operations in the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) since June 2016.

Mr. Caron has over 24 years of information technology (IT) experience. He began his career in the US Army working in hands-on technical positions serving for 7 years as a Programmer and Administrator. Mr. Caron then spent 2 years as a contractor with the federal government, where he acquired more refined technical skills and a more detailed understanding of IT operations. He joined the federal government at the Department of State (DOS) in 2003 as a Systems Administrator. He has held multiple positions at the DOS, moving from managing small technical groups leading up to Director for ENM.

One of his most significant accomplishments was acting as the technical liaison during a major cyber security event at the Department. His leadership allowed the Department to resolve the incident as quickly and effectively as possible with minimal impact to the mission.

As the Director of ENM, Mr. Caron was personally responsible for the leadership of the largest office within the IRM bureau. This included managing the financial portfolio of over $200 million and prioritization of work across a wide range of disciplines. In this role he was responsible for the network and authentication infrastructure for the Department, led the re-engineering of the Department’s primary Identity and Access Management solution, formed teams to address key security efforts needed to mitigate future potential cybersecurity attacks through collaborative efforts, led the redesign of the Department’s Active Directory significantly improving security and responsible for the engineering and management of all the Department’s global network infrastructure and perimeter security infrastructure.

Mr. Caron is a co-chair on the CIO’s Innovation Counsel for Zero Trust as well as co-chair for ATARC.org Zero Trust Working Group. He previously chaired ATARC.org Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) 3.0 Working Group which resulted in 8 vendor proof of concepts being delivered to government participants.

Mr. Caron received his associate degree (Magna Cum Laude) in Computer Information Systems, Network Administration from the Northern Virginia Community College. At the Department of State, he also has received training in Executive Potential Program from the USDA Graduate School in 2009 and Advanced Leadership Skills in 2014. He received his certification in May 2020 as a Forrester Zero Trust – Strategist (ZTX-S) and received his Federal IT Security Manager Certification (FITSP-M) in 2017. Mr. Caron has received numerous individual awards for his exceptional service since 2004.
Chris Cleary Principal Cyber Advisor, U.S. Navy
Chris Cleary
- Principal Cyber Advisor
- U.S. Navy
Alma Cole Former CISO, Customs & Border Protection
Alma Cole
- Former CISO
- Customs & Border Protection
Jennifer Franks Director of IT & Cybersecurity, GAO
Jennifer Franks
- Director of IT & Cybersecurity
- GAO
Jennifer Franks directs the Center for Enhanced Cybersecurity within GAO’s Information Technology and Cybersecurity team. She oversees reviews that primarily focus on emerging cybersecurity issues and assessing an agency’s ability to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its sensitive data and computing infrastructure. Her multi-disciplinary teams actively review agencies’ computer security vulnerabilities across their enterprise-wide computing environment by assessing program management compliance and technical controls recommended for the agencies to follow in accordance with federal guidance and leading practices. In addition, she leads reviews in the areas of IT management and operations, financial management, healthcare and public health IT, data protection, and privacy.

Further, Jennifer serves as the Acting Director of the Analytics Foundry; a dedicated cloud computing environment that manages GAO’s complex analytical functions.

Jennifer earned a master’s degree in information security policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Hampton University.
Mike Witt Associate CIO, Cybersecurity & Privacy, NASA
Mike Witt
- Associate CIO, Cybersecurity & Privacy
- NASA