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GCN Home > 09/09/02 issue

Turf wars hinder federal IT security

By William Jackson, GCN Staff

When Securify Inc. in June named Carl Wright vice president for federal operations, the Mountain View, Calif., company tapped 11 years of experience in the Marine Corps.

Securify last year went from being a managed services provider to a product company, marketing its SecurVantage system for configuration control and management.

Government sales of IT security products and services have been critical to the company during the economic downturn, Wright said. “The federal side is carrying the company right now,” he said.

Wright capped his military career as chief information security officer and operations officer for the Corps’ IT and Network Operations Center. He was responsible for the Marine Corps Enterprise Network, which has more than 120,000 users around the world.

After leaving the Marines as a major, Wright became chief technology officer at Smartronix Inc. of California, Md. In 1999, he received the National Security Agency’s Rowlett trophy.

Wright received a bachelor of science degree in management from Augsburg College in Minneapolis and a master’s degree in IT management from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. He is completing a doctorate in IT at George Mason University.

GCN senior editor William Jackson interviewed Wright at GCN’s Washington offices.

GCN: Is vice president of federal operations a new position for Securify Inc.?

WRIGHT: Yes. The reality has always been that the federal government is a consumer of new and emergent technologies. Coupled with significantly increased spending on IT security and services, that makes it an extremely viable market.

GCN: Why did you decide to leave the Marine Corps for the private sector?

WRIGHT: There aren’t many IT professionals in this world who get the opportunity to install, operate and maintain a global, enterprisewide, defense-in-depth security architecture for a 120,000-user network. The Marine Corps provided me with an excellent initial opportunity and experience.

But retention in the federal sector is a real problem. Most people believe that IT professionals leave for more money. The reality is that most leave because of poor opportunities for advancement and the lack of organizational commitment to aligning IT objectives with capital investments.

More news on related topics: Defense IT, IT Security