Industry Execs Talk Complex Supply Chain’s Impact on Cybersecurity at Senate Hearing

Industry executives appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday to discuss complex supply chains facing prime contractors and how the issue increases cybersecurity risk, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

William LaPlante, senior vice president and general manager of Mitre’s national security sector, said some prime contractors do not know the companies their subcontractors work with.

“The knowledge of the primes to the sub to the sub to the sub is uneven,” LaPlante said.

Michael MacKay, chief technology officer for Progeny Systems, said companies holding prime contracts should take ownership and be responsible as they take on every phase of the management process.

“We are a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin and Lockheed Martin assesses us the same way that we assess the [subcontractors] that work for us, so the flow down is critically important,” MacKay noted.

“But the guy at the top who has the prime contract has to take on the responsibility of seeing things all the way down to the bottom. And they have to ask the hard questions.”
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