H103: Fortified Future: Cybersecurity Through Consolidation

  • Room: 202A
  • Session Number:H103
Thursday, July 23, 2026: 9:45 AM - 10:35 AM

Speaker(s)

Moderator
Stephen Zakowicz PMP
Senior Vice President
CGI Federal
Speaker
Steven Burke
Senior Director for State and Local Cybersecurity
State of Maryland - DoIT
Speaker
Richard Grabowski
Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Deputy Program Manager
DHS
Speaker
Justin Ubert
Director
Department of Transportation
Speaker
Rosa Underwood
Senior Cybersecurity Advisor
General Services Administration

Description

As federal agencies increasingly consolidate systems, services and platforms, cybersecurity must be built into the strategy from day one — not treated as a barrier to modernization. This session will explore how well-designed shared services can actually strengthen security by standardizing controls, reducing fragmentation and allowing agencies to maintain ownership and oversight of their data.


Key Takeaways

• Consolidation and shared services, when designed with security from the outset, can meaningfully strengthen an agency’s cyber posture by reducing fragmentation, standardizing controls and closing long-standing gaps that decentralized environments often create.
• Agencies can maintain ownership and visibility of their sensitive data — even within shared-service models —through modern governance, segregation controls and architectures that protect access while enabling efficiency gains.
• Successful consolidation requires integrating cybersecurity requirements early in planning, ensuring that risk management, compliance safeguards and resilience measures are embedded throughout implementation to support both mission and modernization goals.

Learning Objectives

Understand how consolidation and shared services can strengthen cybersecurity by standardizing controls, reducing fragmented systems and embedding security architecture early in modernization planning. Identify strategies for maintaining agency control of sensitive data while leveraging enterprise-wide or shared-services platforms, including governance models, data-segregation approaches and compliance considerations. 3. Evaluate risk, readiness and implementation considerations to ensure cybersecurity requirements are integrated from the outset of consolidation efforts — supporting secure transformation, improved resilience and mission-aligned outcomes.

  • All