Michael talks to Andrew Stewart, Senior National Security and Government Strategist at Cisco
By Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace
In this episode of the Endace Packet Forensic files, I talk with Andrew Stewart, Senior National Security and Government Strategist at Cisco. Andrew, CAPT, USN (Ret.) is a Senior Federal Strategist at Cisco where he implements strategies to support innovative cybersecurity and AI/ML solutions across the Federal Government. He also served as the Commanding Officer and Program Manager at the Navy Cyber Warfare Development Group (NCWDG).
With Andrew’s deep experience in national security and government agencies, I wanted to get his thoughts on all the new Whitehouse mandates, and cybersecurity policies from CISA such as the emphasis on Zero Trust and other important initiatives. We discuss whether what organizations are doing is sufficient given the risks posed by nation-state threat actors.
Noting that CISA guidelines and recommendations and Whitehouse mandates can help organizations and agencies prioritize cybersecurity with more urgency than before, Andrew raises the issue of awareness of cybersecurity among executives and corporate boards. He suggests that, regardless of whether the threat is a nation-state attacker or a ransomware group, a threat-based approach is crucial. He also discusses the importance of building resilience across all “mission” functions, not just day-to-day operations, especially with a remote workforce. In short, security resilience is essential to underpin it all.
Lastly, Andrew highlights trends for the coming months – including the ever-changing nature of threats as hybrid cloud operating environments continue to expand the threat spectrum and transform the way we work. Visibility, he says, remains the key to mastering and controlling such a dynamic threat environment.
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