As technology continues to evolve and become more cutting edge, it may not initially be as secure as it needs to be. When you consider more heterogeneous environments with multiple operating systems, applications, and considerable open source development, a robust cybersecurity initiative becomes a must.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tom Hankins, Cybersecurity Operations Manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a part of the Department of Energy (DoE), to discuss the cybersecurity challenges faced by national laboratories, and how to effectively deal with them.

To listen to the podcast in full, click here.

In an increasingly hostile cyber environment, Hankins believes that making the case to senior management to take the cybersecurity plunge shouldn’t be all too difficult: “it’s only hard if you don’t get yourself out of your little cyber cage and present your case. You have to write these things down. You have to come up with a marketing plan, and you have to execute it.” Hankins continued, “the typical pushback is that we’re going to interrupt the business. And while you will be somewhat service interrupting - that does happen - you also need to address how you’re going to get that job done with minimal impact and how the impact of losing integrity, losing availability, losing confidentiality is a much larger problem.”

Tom will present his approach to dealing with these challenges at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit, June 23-26 in Washington, DC.