bill downerVice President of National Programs seagate federalbelieves that “the edge is everywhere” regardless of where data is collected and stored. He is a strong advocate of protecting data at rest and in his role at Seagate leads the delivery of secure data storage products to federal agencies.
In a recent Executive Spotlight interview, executive businessMr. Downer provided insight into Seagate's most impactful partnerships, discussed emerging cyber threats, and shared insights on Zero Trust.
How does Seagate leverage partnerships with other companies to create secure cross-domain solutions for federal organizations?
There are several partnerships that are particularly important to us. One of these is our partnership with Ball Aerospace. The company believes that more data needs to be stored in different locations in space, especially in low and medium Earth orbit. This allows this data storage to be placed right next to a sensor with some processing capabilities. So, while not all the raw data needs to be sent back, the preprocessed data can be compressed and sent back, freeing up more downlink bandwidth.
Without our partnership with Ball Aerospace, we would not have been able to understand the requirement to have storage next to every sensor. They had a vision that we needed to take everyday products into space, and they guided us on what kinds of data storage devices we needed to create at Seagate. This leverages our 40+ years of experience in building everyday storage devices and providing that knowledge. and the ability to go into space.
Another partnership I would like to highlight is our partnership with CACI. CACI has a product called Archon that provides secure edge devices used to access sensitive sites. In partnership with the Department of Defense, CACI defined the need for a server that uses all of the data at rest (DAR) capabilities of NSA Commercial Solutions (CSfC) certified technology to protect data. Through this partnership, Seagate Federation collaborated with other partners to provide secure enterprise storage devices within Dell servers, creating a secure server solution for the Department of Defense.
What do you think is the biggest threat facing U.S. cyber systems today and what can be done to protect against it?
For me, the biggest attack surface is stored data. While U.S. government agencies have certainly gone to great lengths to create standards and technologies to protect networks, the reality is that data is most at risk when it is stored on storage devices. exposed.
Seagate Federation is focused on creating easy-to-use security technologies that are difficult for nation states to compromise, whether using multi-factor authentication or double encryption on storage devices. Seagate Federation has worked with a variety of partners to protect data at rest and protect it from peer adversaries seeking to obtain our information.
Do you think U.S. cybersecurity efforts are keeping up with demand? If not, how can cybersecurity be accelerated and expanded?
There were already so many threats out there, but now AI is creating a whole new dimension of threat, making it difficult for any organization to keep up with the constant evolution of evolving threats. The U.S. government does a great job of keeping the industry aware of threats from all actors, but at some level I don't think it's possible to be agile enough to respond to all of these threats.
Data comes in from a growing network of connected sensors and devices. How does cybersecurity (particularly zero trust) factor into the data conversation?
I define zero trust as not trusting users or connections at any point, and always testing attestation and data origin. Users need to know every level and need to be very dynamic at every level.
Seagate Federation uses multi-factor authentication and dynamic key management to provide zero trust all the way down to the storage device bandwidth level. The U.S. government and its agencies must be able to leverage the ability to run Zero Trust at all levels and in all types of systems.