The Multi-Sector Federal Workforce and Infosec

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One of the critical challenges facing the government is how best to integrate work across multiple disciplines while maintaining a secure computing environment.

Ruby DeMesme, a former Air Force assistant secretary for manpower, reserve affairs, installation and environment, sees information technology as shaping the way government workers perform their jobs. No longer are jobs aligned with a predefined assignment, but are dynamic, requiring critical thinking and the ability to navigate technology to determine how best to perform a variety of tasks.

"We have a multi-sector workforce and we have a multi-generational workforce and we have the ability to deliver information instantaneously around the world," Ruby DeMesme, now a senior adviser at the consultancy Deloitte, said in an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com (transcript below). "But, when all of these confluences or ideas and factors and events come together, it means that the person in the workforce must be very comfortable with their knowledge or know where to get information on a split second notice; it is not even minute by minute today, it is second by second."

For decades from the inside, and now from the outside, Ruby DeMesme has seen the role of the federal government worker evolve over the years.

DeMesme has written a paper entitled, Equipping the Federal Workforce for the Cyber Age, in which IT security plays a critical factor.

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In the interview, DeMesme explains the:

• Meaning of the word equipping in context to the Internet-age federal workforce.
• Synergy between cybersecurity and an IT-savvy workforce.
• Commitment the federal government must make to create a 21st century workforce.

GovInfoSecurity.com's Eric Chabrow interviewed DeMesme.

DeMesme was named Air Force assistant secretary in 1998, where she directed and managed Air Force human resources management policies and programs for more than 2 million active and reserve members, civilians and families. She oversaw strategic planning on issues including recruitment, training, retention and separation policies and programs.

During her 22-year tenure with the Department of Defense, DeMesme regularly testified before Congress and worked with lawmakers and other government officials to secure funding for military benefits programs. She also served as a senior adviser on military matters to former Sen. John Glenn, D.-Ohio.

DeMesme graduated magna cum laude from St. Augustine's College and was awarded a master of social work degree from the University of North Carolina.

ERIC CHABROW: Your advising Deloitte. and a recent paper you helped prepare is entitled Equipping the Federal Workforce for the Cyber Age. Why is the term "equipping"? What equipment or tools do federal workers need to be prepared for the digital age?

RUBY DeMESME: We actually used the term equipping because I think it is more than education, whereas usually the workforce needing to learn more or to have more training or to have a greater awareness of things. I think in the cyber world, it goes a little bit beyond just learning about it. Equipping means having the abilities, the opportunities, the training and the tools to ensure that they are really prepared to change the way they work in the new world of work environment.

I think cyber is one of those initiatives that is kind of new. It incorporates a lot of what we have to do to protect our information and our people and our identities in this nation. And so it to me describes the ability to go beyond merely looking at something in a new way but actually developing new ideas and skills around working in a new cyber environment.

CHABROW: What is a cyber-savvy workforce and where does cybersecurity fit into that type of workforce, and how would you rate this cybersecurity awareness or savviness of the federal workforce?

DeMESME: A cyber-savvy workforce is one that is very comfortable in delivering the right kinds of services at a time when you have a need to know and need to share, and it needs to protect information simultaneously. Savvy means that you are confident that you not only have the knowledge but you have the tools and you have the capabilities that you need infrastructure-wise in the workforce to actually perform on a say to day basis.

For the most part, we think about IT when we look at the cyber workforce. We know that there is security that must be built in the tools of the trade. We know that we have Internet capabilities that are international, that we are having split-second information coming at us in requests all the time.