One year in review from Reid Novotny, Director of Federal Programs and Maryland Air National Guard Member.
Four days ago, I had my one-year anniversary. It is my one-year anniversary of being with The Cyber COAST and in the Maryland Air National Guard. These two things are inextricably connected because there are only 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year and I am only one person. The Cyber COAST was born out of our founder’s passion and commitment to his fellow military member and now employees.
Although I describe my interaction with The Cyber COAST below, my story is not unique to any specific employee. The first act I did after leaving Active Duty was to join The Cyber COAST while initially working for the Maryland Air National Guard for three months. This action would help me learn how to operate in the Guard and allow for my family to have a smooth transition to our new lives. Without hesitation and with passion and commitment to my family he said yes.
Within my role in the Maryland Air National Guard, I have learned more about offensive and defensive Cyber Operations in one year than I did in my 15 years on Active Duty. This new skill set is one that our founder has great depth in with his background in his role designing the Cyber Mission Forces while at the United States Cyber Command and implementing them in the USAF.
With three months of full-time work within the National Guard, I was placed on my first client site within the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Chief Information Office. In this role, The Cyber COAST supported the DOJ’s Joint Security Operations Center (JSOC) which is comprised of some of the best cyber defenders within our government. Within their toolkit, the JSOC had procured Verodin as the first in its class Security Instrumentation Platform but never operationalized this capability. The Cyber COAST created the playbook for security validation within the DOJ, which found a major security implementation flaw on our first test. Beyond that, we brought the thought process of the military exercise and created a cyber “Top Gun” for their defenders using Verodin to execute real multilevel attack sequences on their live network to make their best of the best…better.
Along the way, we’ve learned a fundamental principle: Cyber defense is not something you have, it is something you do. Internalizing this principle, the Cyber COAST approaches our engagements with an operational mindset to identify gaps in technology, process, and people that will make the most impact on our clients.
As we head into 2018, The Cyber COAST is bringing our passion and commitment back into the Air Force and the Department of Defense. If you would like to join our team, please reach out directly and we look forward to a very successful New Year!
