The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) serves multiple functions. It delivers capabilities to end-mission users but also has the responsibility of securing federal .gov domains. Nobody knows this better than Vincent Sritipan, mobile & security R&D program manager, Cyber Security Division, DHS.
Sritipan recently spoke with Billy Mitchell, managing editor at FedScoop, for the third video in FedScoop TV’s new “Accelerating Innovation in Government” series supported by Samsung. In this video, Sritipan discusses a number of mobile initiatives underway at the agency. In particular, he’s focused on solving mission owners’ most difficult problems, and is very concentrated on executing R&D initiatives designed to enhance the user experience and empower workers.
One example of the work currently being done is an overseas travel policy for both executives and mission users. They are tackling tough questions such as: Can you take a device overseas? Do you need endpoint protection? Do you have to have enterprise mobility management? Sritipan points out that there is no policy or requirement to protect the endpoint as a mobile device today, just encryption for federal information processing standards.
Discussing security, and putting it into policy and practice is a top priority, as DHS works to improve mission outcomes and drive productivity. A lot of the work digital transformation and mobility efforts Sritipan is working on has been shaped by insights from the May 2017 DHS Study on Mobile Device Security submitted to Congress.
The study is a must-read from an industry perspective. It details the challenges around the federal government’s use of mobile devices and outlines recommendations for mobile device ecosystem improvements.
According to the study, “the threats to the Federal government’s use of mobile devices — smartphones and tablet computers running mobile operating systems — exist across all elements of the mobile ecosystem.”
It also warns that government devices “could become an avenue to attack back-end computer systems containing the data of millions of Americans and sensitive information related to federal government functions.”
Watch more to hear more about Sritipan’s thoughts on mobile security, FISMA compliance and more. Plus, stay tuned to Samsung Insights’ federal government coverage for additional videos from the series in the coming weeks.
