Government Information Security Podcast

Patrick Gallagher has Cita Furlani's back. Gallagher, the new director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, praised Furlani, head of NIST's Information Technology Laboratory, for her ITL reorganization plan to encourage more multidisciplinary collaboration with other agency units in developing cybersecurity programs and guidance. The plan received mixed reviews from NIST stakeholders, and Furlani withdrew it for further review. "Every manager should be striving to make sure their organization is as effective as possible," Gallagher, who the Senate confirmed last month as NIST director, said in an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com. "What Cita was doing was looking at one of the major tools that a manager has, which is your organizational structure optimized for being as effective as possible. It was a very thoughtful proposal. The reality is that many of the cybersecurity activities already spread across various division within ITL, and this was the chance to try to create some synergies t