The report names Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and Interior. (That is to say, not the Defense Department and not Homeland Security). As the sprint report itself says, there’s a long way to go. The next step is a comprehensive cyber strategy based on all of this.

Agency customers are likely to be more receptive to focused cybersecurity functionality technologies now. I read with interest a new survey by Intel Security of more than 600 IT people responsible for security of systems controlling critical infrastructure. Here is a quote from this fascinating finding: “Even though major data breaches make regular headlines, many executives surveyed rated their organization’s defenses good to excellent, possibly from overconfidence or misplaced faith in their capabilities to effectively respond to an attack, based on Intel Security threat reports.”

Those reports depict rising levels of attacks with a variety of motives ranging from theft to espionage to physical destruction. No doubt this condition applies to federal systems.

Even though the federal fiscal year is coming to an end, given the urgency of the cybersecurity situation, vendors have a real opportunity to close business before September 30 if customers can document and justify their requirements clearly and succinctly in funded purchase requests consistent with the eight priorities. 

Steve Charles is co-founder of immixGroup, an Arrow company.