Dominic Cussatt, deputy chief information officer and principal deputy assistant secretary for information technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), said the VA is supporting 140,000 teleworking employees amid the ongoing pandemic, Nextgov reported Wednesday.
Cussatt told the publication in an interview that the department delivered thousands of mobile devices to personnel in need and added 15,000 to its Veterans Health Administration workforce in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The VA also blocked “hundreds of millions of malware attempts” in April and has at least 45 priority cybersecurity projects underway, he noted.
In addition, Cussatt said the VA plans to modernize its legacy equipment and expand bandwidth as well as telehealth capacities to address veteran needs. The department reported over 100K patient visits through VA Video Connect in early May, according to the report.
Speaking on the VA’s other digital transformation goals, Cussatt said the department aims to reroute 50 percent of network traffic through the cloud and establish a virtual cloud environment to support activities encompassing telehealth, remote work, telecounseling, benefits processing and legal procedures.
