Close Menu
WashingtonExec
    Podcast Episodes
    LinkedIn Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    LinkedIn Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    WashingtonExec
    Subscribe To The Daily
    • News & Headlines
    • Executive Councils
    • Videos
    • Podcast
    • Events
      • 🏆 Chief Officer Awards
      • 🏆 Pinnacle Awards
    • About
    • Contact Us
    LinkedIn YouTube X (Twitter)
    WashingtonExec
    You are at:Home»Execs to Know»Pinnacle Award Finalist John DeSimone: ‘The Future Of The Cybersecurity Field Depends On Its Future Talent’
    Execs to Know

    Pinnacle Award Finalist John DeSimone: ‘The Future Of The Cybersecurity Field Depends On Its Future Talent’

    By Staff WriterNovember 15, 2022
    Share
    LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Email
    John DeSimone, Raytheon Intelligence & Space

    The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Pinnacle Awards were announced Oct. 11, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 30.

    Next is Intelligence Industry Executive of the Year (Public Company) finalist John DeSimone, who’s president of cybersecurity, intelligence and services at Raytheon Intelligence & Space. Here, he talks key achievements, primary focus areas going forward, shaping the next generation of leaders and more.

    What key achievements did you have in 2021 / 2022?

    I am extremely proud of everything CIS was able to accomplish these past couple of years. My own scope of work ranged from navigating responses to novel cyberattacks, to securing major partnerships on missions of national importance which has fueled double-digit growth for our business.

    In 2021, in response to the SolarWinds cyberattack and other cybercrimes, CIS wanted to reinforce the importance of unity among the public and private sectors. To showcase this commitment, CIS led a special conference in April 2021, the Billington Cybersecurity Defense Summit: Charting the New Paradigm Shift to Data Security, which was attended by more than 600 cybersecurity and defense leaders from the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Congressional leaders and private sector security companies. The results of that summit were featured in a Washington Post write-up.

    What are your primary focus going forward, and why are those so important to the future of the nation?

    Moving forward, cyber attacks are only going to grow more frequent and sophisticated. In response, we must make a shift from traditional cyber defense in order to keep up. For years, we relied on strong defense as our core security strategy; however, progressing attacks are forcing us to pivot.

    The only way to properly prevent these attacks is to evolve right alongside the evolving cybercriminals. By taking on a more offensive approach, and integrating that into traditional cyber defense, the response times of cyber defenders will be cut down and we will be able to act faster and more efficiently. Organizations often wait until it is too late to implement proactive tactics. As an industry, and as a nation, the only way to combat the increasing number of cyber attacks is to make that shift.

    Additionally, the future of the cybersecurity field depends on its future talent. This means leaders within the industry are responsible for investing in the skill cultivation of their employees so that they can be better equipped to meet their customer’s needs.

    Within Raytheon Intelligence and Space, we not only offer a cyber academy to meet growing customer demand for training home-grown cyber talent, but we actually use it to manufacture talent for ourselves. We’ve retrained entire classes of Raytheon Technologies software engineers to become cyber engineers.

    How do you help shape the next generation of government leaders/industry leaders?

    One of the biggest threats to cybersecurity today is the skills gap. This lack of talent not only creates an internal challenge for the cyber industry, but it also creates a massive opportunity for new talent to be found and fostered.

    In response to this challenge, I have championed a new business initiative called Offensive Labs. Offensive Labs has a mission to cultivate cyber engineering talent, strengthen CIS’s integration of offensive cyber and defensive cyber, and retain elite vulnerability researchers.

    This training program prepares engineers from adjacent disciplines, as well as entry-level engineering talent, for the offensive cyber-mission space. As candidates progress through the program, they get a personalized curriculum to help them be ready for their specific missions.

    They are then deployed on customer cyber missions, meaning that customers who are defending their systems, networks and endpoints benefit from cyber defenders training to think like an attacker. I’m very proud of how we’re shaping wave after wave of cyber athletes to fill some of the most critical roles across the country.

    Meet the other Pinnacle Awards finalists here.

    Previous ArticleClient Solution Architects Lands $35M Naval Education, Training Command Contract
    Next Article Pinnacle Award Finalist Tom Portlock: ‘If You’re Given An Opportunity And Unsure If You Can Do It, Say Yes And Learn’

    Related Posts

    2025 Chief Officer Awards Winner: SPA’s Dave Hearding

    ASRC Federal Taps Aerospace Veteran Mike O’Hara to Drive Space Growth

    Leidos Wins $35M DISA Contract to Modernize Cross-Domain Data Sharing

    Comments are closed.

    LinkedIn Follow Button LinkedIn Logo Follow Us on LinkedIn
    2025 Chief Officer Awards - Winners Revealed
    Latest Industry Leaders

    Top Cyber Execs to Watch in 2025

    Top Chief Technology Officers to Watch in 2025

    Load More
    Latest Posts

    2025 Chief Officer Awards Winner: SPA’s Dave Hearding

    June 19, 2025

    ASRC Federal Taps Aerospace Veteran Mike O’Hara to Drive Space Growth

    June 19, 2025

    Leidos Wins $35M DISA Contract to Modernize Cross-Domain Data Sharing

    June 19, 2025

    Top Health Care Execs to Watch in 2025: Peraton’s Lauren Toth

    June 19, 2025

    Top Health Care Execs to Watch in 2025: Intel Corp.’s Mike Namvar

    June 19, 2025
    Quick Links
    • Executive Councils & Committees
    • Chief Officer Awards
    • Pinnacle Awards
    • Advertise With Us
    • About WashingtonExec
    • Contact
    Connect
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube
    • Facebook
    • Twitter

    Subscribe to The Daily

    Connect. Inform. Celebrate.

    Copyright 2023 © WashingtonExec, Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Powered by J Media Group

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.