HP Federal’s Tommy Gardner on Supply Chain Security, Device Procurement for Remote Work

Tommy Gardner, chief technology officer at HP Federal, discussed in an article published Monday on Federal News Network about the vulnerability of supply chains to threats highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for federal agencies to examine the specifications of a device being procured for employees who are teleworking.

“Just because systems will look the same … they are not the same inside,” Gardner said. “The design of the systems are unique. They are not commodities in any way, shape, or form. And so you have to be careful, if you really don’t know what you’re looking for, and you just pick the first thing that looks good on the exterior.”

He cited some of the questions to be asked when buying a computer system for remote working purposes.

“What are you getting on the inside? What kind of security protections do you have, particularly if you’re working in government, and you’re going to use this machine on a government, network and VPN? What risk are you providing to your mission execution? Those type of questions really should be going through the federal workers mindset, as well as industry, because the industry has the same risk,” Gardner said.