The last year has been a tipping point for cyber security! Safeguarding the internet and the underlying critical information infrastructures has taken center stage as a National imperative. We share threats & vulnerabilities to these fragile underpinnings critical to our ability to sustain economic growth, foster international stability and achieve national security. Do we adequately collaborate across public and private sector for protection and defense? Is our risk appetite sufficient to manage the polarity between information sharing, access, and security? And what is the Military's role in defense of our cyber national security?
Mr. Lentz, as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in both the Bush and Obama administrations and the first Senior Information Assurance Official for the Department of Defense serving since Nov 2000 will provide his perspective and lessons learned over several decades working in the cyber security field. Mr. Lentz will outline his future vision and goals and those critical policy, technical and operational challenges facing us in this race to leverage the power of the internet.
<strong>Robert F. Lentz, OSD/NII</strong> <br /> Mr. Lentz is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber, Identity and Information Assurance (CI&IA) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Networks and Information Integration/Chief Information Officer. Since November 2000, he has been the Chief Information Assurance Officer (CIAO) for the Department of Defense (DoD) and, in this capacity, oversees the Defense-wide IA Cyber Program, which plans, monitors, coordinates, and integrates IA Cyber activities across DoD. <br /><br /> Mr. Lentz is the Chairman of the National Space INFOSEC Steering Council (NSISC), DoD member of the Presidential Sub-Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS), the leader of the DoD IA Steering Council, and the IA Domain Owner of the Global Information Grid Enterprise Information Management Mission Area. In his capacity as the CIAO, Mr. Lentz is a member of the DoD CIO Executive Council. He is also the DoD liaison to several private sector boards, including the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Strategic Advisory Council, the Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures (CVE) Senior Advisory Council, the International Cyber Center Advisory Board and SAFEcode.<br /><br /> Mr. Lentz has over 26 years of experience with the National Security Agency (NSA) in the areas of financial management and technical program management. He has served as Chief of the Space and Networks IA Office, Chief Financial Officer of the NSA IA Directorate, Executive Assistant to the NSA SIGINT Collections and Operations Group and Field Chief of the Finksburg National Public Key Infrastructure/Key Management Infrastructure Operations Center. <br /><br /> Mr. Lentz has received the NSA Resource Manager of the Year Award, the Defense Meritorious Service Award, 2006 “Top 20” Excellence.gov Award, the 2003 Presidential Rank Award and the 2004 “Federal 100” award. In 2004, Mr. Lentz also received the highest-level honorary award the Department can bestow on a civilian employee, the prestigious Secretary of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award. In 2008, he was named Information Security government Executive of the year for the Middle Atlantic region, culminating in his award as the North American Executive of the year. In 2009, he was the recipient of the RSA award for Excellence in the Field of Security Practices.<br /><br /> Mr. Lentz is a graduate of the National Senior Cryptologic Course at the National Cryptologic School, Federal Executive Institute (FEI) and the Resource Management Course at the Naval Postgraduate School. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree with a double major in History and Social Science from Saint Mary's College of Maryland and a Masters Degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College.