So the new Cybersecurity Adviser (aka Head Coach) will be announced this week…and as I mentioned previously regarding Step 1 and Step 2, the Head Coach will play a vital role in coordinating people, entities, policies, activities, strategies and ongoing updates as strategies and threats change.
We reviewed how the Head Coach will need to implement an “intelligent playbook” to ensure all appropriate people have access to customized knowledge they need to make better decisions and achieve better results. The “cybersecurity intelligent playbook” will no doubt need tools that will empower the Head Coach and enable all appropriate personnel to have secure accessibility to their roles and responsibilities and strategies.
Step 3 of President Obama’s 10-point action plan sounds good and looks good on paper. Step 3 – Designate cybersecurity as one of his key management priorities and establish performance metrics. (the article I saw has seemingly assumed the new Head Coach will be a he….we should find out tomorrow)
Lessons learned and reports (IG and GAO and others) show that just designating or declaring a topic as a key management priority will not produce results. In fact, one of the GAO 2009 Congressional and Presidential Transition challenges is Management Challenges across the Government and states:
“Although agencies have made progress in improving their operations in recent years, they often lack the basic management capabilities needed to address current and emerging demands. Accordingly, GAO has identified key governmentwide capacity building and management challenges. These challenges must be addressed to effectively and efficiently implement new policy and program initiatives.”
Stay tuned for the announcement of the Cybersecurity Head Coach and how lessons learned can play key roles with the remaining steps of President Obama’s 10-step action plan.