HP Federal’s CTO Tommy Gardner: Agencies Should Incorporate Cybersecurity Into Procurement Strategy

Tommy Gardner, chief technology officer of HP’s federal business, has said the U.S. government should add cybersecurity to the process for acquiring new technology platforms to secure agencies, people, infrastructure and trade activities.

Gardner wrote in an opinion piece posted Friday on Fifth Domain that agencies consider price, schedule and performance of systems as the “three pillars of acquisition.”

He proposed adding cybersecurity as the fourth pillar to the government acquisition system to address the evolving threats from foreign adversaries or hackers who target federal networks and urged companies to implement measures to secure products during product design phase.

“Contractors will need to do their part by delivering more safe and secure endpoint devices, such as laptops and network computers. These systems especially need to be designed with cybersecurity in mind.”

Gardner cited a Congressional Budget Office report indicating the Department of Defense plans to invest $1.2T in the development of major weapons systems. Defense officials also expect the figure to increase in the coming years.

He added the DoD leadership wants to require cybersecurity tests of new technologies before the department prior to buying the platforms.