Katie Arrington, Chief Information Security Officer, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Defense Department
Katie Arrington came to the Defense Department in early 2019 as a change agent and bridge between departmental information security efforts, Congress, industry and academia. In her short tenure, she has been driving the cybersecurity portion of the most significant acquisition reform in DOD through the development and implementation of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program.
This is the start of Arrington’s initiative to secure the DOD supply system as she has taken on an expanded role within the department to include cybersecurity of the sustainment functions. To aid in this new role, she introduced supply chain illumination tools not just to the DOD but also to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services in her role as lead for accelerating FEMA’s supply chain task force for the government’s response to COVID-19. These tools allow for the identification of foreign influence and help in informing senior leaders of risks within the industrial base.
Why Watch:
These two foundational changes to DOD are just the beginning of Arrington’s career as she looks to the future and ensuring the department continues to secure U.S. defense industrial base through auditable cybersecurity standards, weeding out foreign influence within the supply chain, and establishing security as a foundation capability within DOD.