GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts
Oct 13, 2026 · 19 min · 8 segments
Securing critical infrastructure and managing network vulnerabilities are a growing priority. That's what Former Department of Veterans Affairs IT leader Bill James kept top of mind when writing a new…
Absolutely, and it sounds like there's a, a little bit of everything for everyone, uh, who, you know, sort of connects with characters in books typically, and-
But the premise of it falling, um, within that sort of three-legged stool, as you described, it...
Although the book is fiction, it's kind of a, you know, that's a real challenge right now-
I mean, this is a fiction novel, but the, the grounding is, is real, and, um, and, and also the organizational separation is real.
And, you know, uh, every organization has a chief information security officer at the top or should have, and many times the CISO is focused on IT systems.
But when things break and bad things happen, I think Congress and many folks are gonna be looking to the CISO and saying, "Well, wait a minute.
What were you doing to help and, you know, bolster the Internet of Medical Things, the biomed? Or what were you doing to ensure that the, uh, thermostats, uh, and the fan systems and the air conditioning systems and the water systems," think about a, a hospital, how they were protected.
Well- I really wasn't thinking about that because my major job is IT systems.
You know, I, I really believe that, you know, they, they have to be balanced relative to the threat, and the investments in those three legs have to be balanced.
You don't wanna put a golden padlock on the front door while leaving the windows open, right? So, uh, oftentimes those budgets are independent and, and, and the attention to each one of those threats is independent.
So that is the, the cyber, you know, message that I was trying to send here, and I think it'll come through in the novel for those who'd like to read it.
Absolutely, and it sounds like there's a, a little bit of everything for everyone, uh, who, you know, sort of connects with characters in books typically, and-
But the premise of it falling, um, within that sort of three-legged stool, as you described, it...
Although the book is fiction, it's kind of a, you know, that's a real challenge right now-
I mean, this is a fiction novel, but the, the grounding is, is real, and, um, and, and also the organizational separation is real.
And, you know, uh, every organization has a chief information security officer at the top or should have, and many times the CISO is focused on IT systems.
But when things break and bad things happen, I think Congress and many folks are gonna be looking to the CISO and saying, "Well, wait a minute.
What were you doing to help and, you know, bolster the Internet of Medical Things, the biomed? Or what were you doing to ensure that the, uh, thermostats, uh, and the fan systems and the air conditioning systems and the water systems," think about a, a hospital, how they were protected.
Well- I really wasn't thinking about that because my major job is IT systems.
You know, I, I really believe that, you know, they, they have to be balanced relative to the threat, and the investments in those three legs have to be balanced.
You don't wanna put a golden padlock on the front door while leaving the windows open, right? So, uh, oftentimes those budgets are independent and, and, and the attention to each one of those threats is independent.
So that is the, the cyber, you know, message that I was trying to send here, and I think it'll come through in the novel for those who'd like to read it.
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