That’s a great question. You don’t have to. You are more than welcome to move along. I am not going to convince you that mine is the only answer that you should listen to. There’s a reason this is called “It Depends”. There is more than one answer to any question that you have. This is just one answer.

Seriously. Why you? What makes you think you can speak to any of this?

Let’s start with the easy answer. First off, I’m a DAO. For those of you playing the home game, that’s a Delegated Authorizing Official. I do this for a living and I’ve done it for a quite a while. Over the past almost decade I’ve signed out 25 ATOs a year. Like clockwork, almost exactly 25 a year. If you are a developer or program manager, I’m the person that issues your Authorization to Operate (ATO). Without one of those, that new application that you developed or that new computer network you need, is just an expensive pile of parts. Here’s the thing.

So you’re the guy that always tells us “No”?

No. That is not what I try to do. Sometimes I have to be the “bad guy” and give Program Managers and IT Managers news they do not want to hear. That is true. Honestly, I try to get people to “Yes”. If there is a pile of parts sitting in a corner when they should be a new capability, an upgraded computer network, or something that helps Good Guys do horrible unspeakable things to Bad Guys; then we have all messed up.

The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. 

General George S. Patton

I work for the Department of Defense. Fundamentally, the job of DoD is to kill people and break things. Cyber Security is supposed to enable that. Either in the acquisition of new technologies to enable the Department or in ways that enable US Servicemen and Servicewomen to come home to their families.

The real reason why is that maybe I’ve thought about things a little differently than you have in the past.

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