Raytheon’s John DeSimone: Info Sharing, Partnerships Key to Improving Infrastructure Security

John DeSimone, vice president of cybersecurity and special missions at Raytheon’s intelligence, information and services arm, has said that the public and private sectors need to undergo a cultural shift to better protect critical infrastructure.

DeSimone wrote in a Fifth Domain piece published Saturday that agencies must ensure information sharing and collaboration between stakeholders to address future security challenges, including potential cyber threats ahead of the 2020 elections.

“When looking across all domains of critical infrastructure ― from the electric grid and public utilities, to transportation, healthcare and financial institutions ― industry and government should drive toward a coordinated, enterprise security ecosystem that protects our data and critical systems,” he said. “We must share threat intelligence and capabilities faster to keep operations running.”

DeSimone noted that states should take part in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s cyber preparedness exercises and that both public and private sectors must establish foundational supply chain security standards in line with Department of Defense requirements.

Government, industry and academic entities also need to evaluate current technologies and identify vulnerabilities through procedures such as system monitoring, segmentation, patching and other cyber hardening activities, he added.