DLT's Maclean On Key Security Trends In Federal Marketplace

Don Maclean
Don Maclean

DLT Solutions is betting big on the federal IT security market. As part of that, the solution provider, No. 39 on CRN's 2015 SP500 list, named long-time industry veteran Don Maclean last month to a newly-created role of chief cybersecurity technologist. As he gets his feet under him in the new role, Maclean sat down with ITbestofbreed.com to discuss what his new role will entail and what he sees as the big trends in security in the federal marketplace.

Take a look at what he had to say.

What does your new role entail?

They brought me on here to look at their security products, make sure we're banging the drum sufficiently on the security products that they have and to generally evangelize about security, with particular emphasis on the federal market because that's where I come from. For the past 10 years, I've been managing security programs at numerous government agencies: FBI, DOL, DOJ, U.S. Attorneys...I have my ear to the ground to what really goes on in federal government security programs. I know how the sausage is made, so to speak. [DLT Solutions wants] to know what's on people's minds and how best to address the security concerns they have using the product lines and services that they have available.

The position is new one for DLT. Does a solution provider need a role like that to push security or can they wrap it in?

I think there's a big untapped market for security products...Each solution provider has to come up with their own perspective and their own set of priorities, but I certainly see an important role for myself here. It's not an easy role, but it's one that I'm embracing and want to do with gusto... [DLT] really is forward thinking and they play the long game, not trying to just go for the next quarter but looking at the long-term strategies... They created this position because they foresee a need and I think it was a wise one, but it's a long-term kind of thing.

What do you hope to bring to DLT? What are you strategies and goals?

What I bring to the company is a lot of experience day-in-and-day-out on what makes people tick in the federal government space, which is the majority of the DLT business...I've seen programs that are extremely good and I've seen programs that are not so good. My goal is to try and convince the programs that we're active with that it's okay to get their house in order but also the programs that are in good shape to go to town with some of the more sophisticated technologies that are being developed right now...Those would be my goals.

When you look at the market, what do you see as the biggest threat?

Keeping in mind that I focus almost entirely on the federal market, what I see is...too many unmade beds out there. Let me explain what I mean by that. You might be familiar with the commencement speech that went viral that Admiral William McRaven gave...at West Point at which he told the graduates, "If you want to change the world, start by making your bed." What he meant was, if you don't do the little things well and you're not building a solid foundation...how are you going to do a big thing well? You have to have the basics in order. That's what I see throughout many, not all, of the government security programs today that I have managed – quite often the simple, easy things to do are left undone. The attackers out there don't use their fancy tools and they don't use their sophisticated methods unless they have to – if they can find an attack that's been around since 2011, they'll use that...The way we want to approach this is we can provide the tools to automate that and make the simple things solid so you can deploy the more sophisticated tools...But, there's no point doing that if you've got a giant hole in your security program that anyone can walk through.