Hon. Nazak Nikakhtar Discusses Role of Federal Contractors in Biden’s Cybersecurity Push

June 3, 2021

The Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar, co-chair of Wiley’s National Security Practice, was quoted by S&P Global Market Intelligence about the role of federal contractors in the Biden Administration’s push to ramp up the nation’s cybersecurity defenses.

The article cited President Biden’s recent Executive Order (EO) on cybersecurity, and the $1 billion he allocated to the Technology Modernization Fund earlier this year as part of the American Rescue Plan.

Ms. Nikakhtar, who co-authored a May 13 Wiley alert on the EO, told S&P Global that the government must form strong partnerships with private vendors to identify the most critical emerging technologies and to conduct audits of federal government systems to ensure the solutions are immune to vulnerabilities.

Such partnerships are crucial because it is generally “difficult for government officials who are not in labs working on emerging technologies every day” to stay current on all evolving cyberthreats growing daily and globally, she said.

Ms. Nikakhtar said third-party vendors should help the government with these efforts and compete each year for contracts to conduct the audits. “That way, you can make sure that the system has been reviewed by different people who are in a competitive landscape against one another,” she said. “It forces people to up their game.”

To read the article, click here.