Parsons’ Ronald Nielson: US Cyber Posture Calls for People, Tech Integration Across Gov’t, Industry

Ronald Nielson, chief technology officer at Parsons’ cyber and intelligence division, has said the incorporation of commercial cybersecurity platforms into federal networks has helped promote industry innovation and allowed the Defense Department to counter threat actors.

“Our nation’s cybersecurity prowess is best measured as an integration of people, processes and technologies,” Nielson said in his Nov. 14 testimony before the before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity.

“Our ability to succeed in this critical mission area requires all three to function in unison across government and industry.”

He also cited the need for DoD to foster an agile environment to advance the development of novel platforms.

Other executives who testified before the Senate subpanel were Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and CTO of CrowdStrike; John Davis, a retired U.S. Army major general and federal chief security officer at Palo Alto Networks; and Francis Landolf, a principal at Core Consulting.

The lawmakers held the hearing as they work to update cybersecurity policies for the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.