“From futuristic telephones with screens on desks in the 1990s, to punch card mainframes using FORTRAN, Janet Vogel, the former acting chief information officer and chief information security officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, has seen significant change in the federal technology sector.
Vogel recently retired after 40 years of federal service…”
“’I would definitely recommend that they think big and lean forward. It’s a big job. There are so many moving pieces that you really have to focus on both compliance and operations at the same time because we do operate things departmentwide, and compliance can eat your lunch, and your dinner,’ Vogel said during an ‘exit’ interview on Ask the CIO. ‘So I would say think big, get views that are not just techie so that you understand the impact of choices. Listen, get the input, think about it, lean forward and definitely focus on resiliency. What’s your plan B? What’s your plan C? Because HHS holds critical infrastructure capabilities, and that’s on the shoulders of the IT and the cyber people. It really is, and everyone else, if you believe cyber is everything.’…”
“Vogel spent her last four years working as the HHS CISO and then acting CIO since May. She got her start in IT almost by accident.
‘It was an HHS program, and I worked for the Office of Information Services, I believe it was called at the time. IT was called ADP, automated data processing, and I got a lot of experience there with great mentors,’ she said. ‘I moved to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, and I went through all of the process of how do you get an authority or an approval for an ADP project? I worked mostly with the National Institutes of Health at that time. It was really exciting because I got to see what it takes to put together a program and what it takes to manage it. We went through every acquisition, and went to GSA for approval for every IT acquisition at that time so it really gave me a thorough understanding.’…”
“’The federal IT sector is governed by over 100 laws, rules and regulations, and it is weighed down by that. I would simplify the compliance and the auditing so that we could focus being more effective with IT and cyber. That said, it’s not one office that can do this. We need to make sure that others are engaged. So I would simplify the oversight and all of the legislation that we’re constantly reporting on,’ she said. ‘I think that the evolving nature of cyber makes it a little more difficult because it’s not quite as mature yet. I’m not sure it’ll ever get there because we have a lot of bad actors and all they want to do is disrupt some things that are important.’…” Read the full article here.
Source: After 40 years of service, Vogel offers ways to make federal IT better –By Jason Miller, March 18, 2022. Federal News Network.
