Matthew McFadden
Vice President, Cyber, General Dynamics Information Technology
Launching GDIT’s zero trust accelerator has been an exciting achievement for Matthew McFadden and his team this year.
This effort is positioning GDIT to lead the way in collaborating with government agencies to build and implement zero trust strategies that meet the challenges of their operating environment, whether in an office or at the tactical edge.
Through this effort, McFadden led the development of a zero trust enablement kit for customers to define their protect surface, map transaction flows, identify the highest-value implementation assets and apply the right set of technologies to enable a holistic adoption of zero trust.
“I’m really proud of the great work that Matt is doing at GDIT and for our federal customers,” said Tom Oliver, vice president of digital consulting and solutions growth at GDIT. “He architected GDIT’s zero trust accelerator offering to help customers rapidly assess and respond to the recent cyber executive order and is engaged with numerous agencies to help them plan their path forward.”
Oliver added that McFadden is helping drive GDIT’s strategy for cyber automation, leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, and SOAR technologies to enable agencies to more rapidly and cost effectively respond to cyber threats and incidents.
“He continues to lead GDIT’s Cyber Center of Excellence and engage with industry to share insights on numerous cybersecurity topics,” Oliver said. “In March, Matt published an article on leveraging autonomous cyber for federal agencies. In February, he presented on zero trust at the AFCEA Rocky Mountain Cyber Symposium.”
Why Watch
McFadden’s team is heavily focused on transforming federal agencies’ cyber posture through innovating key tenets of zero trust architecture, including automation, AI and machine learning. The team is defining the technology, expertise and culture of innovation to accelerate comprehensive zero trust implementation across the government. Integral to its success is collaborating with industry-leading partners and sharing lessons learned through the company’s Cyber Center of Excellence.
In the face of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, an effective cybersecurity strategy is critical to strengthen the U.S. government’s cyber defenses, McFadden said.
“The key to driving an effective cyber strategy is building resiliency though zero trust,” he said. “The zero trust strategy has largely already been developed, implemented and proven by industry. As a system integrator, we are helping various government agencies with the multi-year zero trust implementation journey and applying the right set of technologies to enable a holistic adoption of zero trust.”