Lindsay Parker, Chief Technology Officer of the Government of the District of Columbia, offers welcome from Mayor Muriel Bowser

Lindsay Parker, Chief Technology Officer of the Government of the District of Columbia, offers a welcome from Mayor Muriel Bowser at the CyberWire's 6th Annual Women in Cyber Security Reception, Thursday, October 24, 2019, at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Transcript

Dave Bittner: [00:00:14;08] Please join me in welcoming Lindsay Parker.

Lindsay Parker: [00:00:16;16] Thanks everybody. Wow, what a room. This is so energizing. I'll be back next year. Who's coming back? All these women, in cyber, in one room. This is amazing. Let's double this next year. Can I have everybody's commitment to do that? Let's do it.

Lindsay Parker: [00:00:36;24] I'm Lindsay Parker, I have the best job in the world, I'm the Chief Technology Officer for Washington DC Government. I get to work for our Mayor in Washington, Muriel Bowser. And I really do have the best job in the world. I get to re-envision how residents, businesses and visitors experience government. We get to think about that every single day we come to work.

Lindsay Parker: [00:01:05;04] And today, I brought my CISO, Suneel Cherukuri, and he's got a bunch of fun pamphlets because we're recruiting for two new cyber jobs in Washington DC. We'd love for you to stop by and check us out.

Lindsay Parker: [00:01:27;03] My bigger message is that I had the opportunity in my first week on the job, I started the job in February, to go around to a number of schools. We support DC public schools and their networking as well. You might not know, but DC is a city, county, state all in one. We don't get voting representation in the House or the Senate, that's a different story. But unlike other bureaucracies out there, we collapse all the different people that you've got to work together with. We get do a lot quickly. So, our technology shop is pretty cool. We have social workers checking out virtual reality goggles right now to see if that's a way that we can train people before they have to step into a house and deal with real life events. We've got body worn cameras and thinking about all the data that that results in. We've got 800 miles of fiber that we own, we've installed and we operate and maintain throughout DC.

Lindsay Parker: [00:02:31;02] So we've got a lot going on. We need a lot of help and we need civic innovators just like all of you to partner with us, mentor our kids, mentor that next generation to come and join us and think differently about the way government's going to work for all of us. So, that's my small plug and I think this is a wonderful event and I can't wait to help support doubling the size in two or three years. Next year? So, bring a friend next year. Let's double it.

Lindsay Parker: [00:03:06;00] And the last thing I'm going to say is one thing that the mayor truly values in everything that we do is really three things, that's inclusiveness which is why I'm here. Because I need to double the numbers of women working in the fields of cyber security in my organization.

Lindsay Parker: [00:03:25;27] It's resiliency, thinking through how we're going to get ready for what the future is going to throw at us. The Mayor has to go to New York every year for meetings with our bond rating agencies. They usually have 50 questions, I've helped her prepare year after year, for the first time ever, they had two questions. They said, "How are you going to get ready for climate change?" And then the second question was, "Are you prepared for the next cyber attack?" Just so you know, it's how cities are being rated. We have a lot of work to do.

Lindsay Parker: [00:04:01;17] The third thing is really sustainability and making sure we're thinking about not just throwing out every IOT device that anybody comes up with, but actually thinking through what the data is we need to be collecting, how do we do that securely, and what does that teach us about how to reform government going forward?

Lindsay Parker: [00:04:20;04] So, that's my quick pitch. But it's really nice to see everybody here today and I hope to say hi to everybody.

Lindsay Parker: [00:04:29;27] We use your two sponsors. We use KnowBe4. We're throwing out your training later on this week and we also work closely with McAfee. Thanks.