The Department of Veterans Affairs is at the forefront of agencies that are embracing mobile solutions in support of the agency’s mission to provide healthcare, financial assistance and other benefits for veterans.
Federal Technology Insider recently interviewed Mr. Charles De Sanno, Executive Director, Systems Engineering at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mr. De Sanno provided candid insights into the agency’s mobility efforts, which may well offer other agencies a set of tried and tested best practices as they embrace this new frontier.
Below is the first part of our three part exclusive interview with Mr. De Sanno. Ken Kartsen, Vice President of Federal Sales at McAfee, also participated in the interview and helped with key discussions around the right cybersecurity policies and solutions when embracing mobility.
Federal Technology Insider: Tell us about the VA’s mission and why mobility is critical to meeting agency goals?
De Sanno: Our mission is very noble, which is to take care of the veterans who have served our country with the best possible healthcare, and benefits programs and services. Mobility plays a major role in helping us provide better care to Veterans and is a core component of our mission.
Certainly IT visionaries are embracing the mobility wave and when you look at its impact, it is very significant. We believe that VA is actually ahead of this wave within government, where we see the consumer marketplace driving much of this innovation. Our user base expects mobile solutions, which they use in their day-to-day lives. The days of sitting in the ivory tower are gone and IT leadership needs to be touting and embracing disruptive technologies by thinking outside of the box. It is also vital to address the security concerns and demonstrate clear efficiencies, while also ensuring that cost-effective solutions are being implemented. It’s all about making sound business decisions while also being able to support the mission effectively and efficiently.
Federal Technology Insider: What are the security risks that come with rolling out a mobility strategy?
De Sanno: With anything that is widely available, people take things for granted and don‘t fully understand the security ramifications of being mobile. If a device is lost or stolen, that is a big issue, and mobile devices are more susceptible than traditional IT devices such as PCs. There is a different level of security that is required for government mobile devices.
It is no different than security in the PC environment, where the data needs to be stored and protected and we need to ensure that information is transported safety and effectively. Today, VA manages more than 400,000 devices and keeping them fully secure and affordable is a balancing act that IT leadership needs to take into consideration.
The right security controls and policies need to be put into place before the devices are deployed. In addition, this involves ensuring that no sensitive data can be stored on the devices and users cannot download rogue applications. Encryption and password controls also play vital roles.
Federal Technology Insider: Tell us about the cultural shift happening at the VA when it comes to mobile security.
De Sanno: The user community always needs to understand the sensitivity of the information and they need to secure it regardless of controls and the organization. The 2006 incident where a VA laptop was stolen, and subsequently no data was compromised, significantly changed the organizational culture concerning the responsibility of end-users to make the right decisions when it comes to security.
Today, this cultural change is happening on a significant scale and not just at VA. Ten years ago, most of us would open up email attachments from untrusted sources. This is not the case anymore and the same can be said about security and mobility where many users keep their backpacks full of their devices at all times.
Be sure to stay tuned for part two of this interview where Mr. De Sanno discusses best practices when setting up a mobile policy, as well as the cost-saving benefits of mobility.
