Lauren Knausenberger, chief information officer of the Department of the Air Force, and Aaron Weis, CIO at the Department of the Navy, said they have seen an increasing recognition among Department of Defense officials of the importance of information technology and other digital platforms in the fight against near-peer adversaries, Signal magazine reported Wednesday.
“[With] funding cyber and IT too, I feel like I see the respect of this community just go up significantly—this has always been a [stellar] community—but I think that everybody knows it now. Everybody sees this as the foundation for our future competitive advantage,” Knausenberger said Wednesday at a symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Knausenberger also expressed optimism regarding the Air Force’s upcoming tech investments particularly as the service works on the Program Objective Memorandum for the next fiscal year.
“We know that the things zero trust, cloud, connectively, data from anywhere to anywhere, and having the ability to leverage AI to make decisions, that is going to be huge, and we also need cybersecurity at the same time,” she said.
Weis provided updates on digital modernization efforts at the Department of the Navy, including the deployment of 700,000 Office 365 seats during the pandemic.
“We put the Navy on a path to wholesale modernization. We’re doing Cyber Ready, changing how we approach cybersecurity. And we are at the point now where there are thousands of sailors and Marines and civilians who are working on this, so it’s just gratifying to see,” Weis said.
Weis is set to step down from his role in March after serving as the Navy CIO for five years. Knausenberger will retire from her position in June after a six-year career with the Department of the Air Force. The military CIOs are both 2023 Wash100 Award recipients.
