DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

The concept of Zero Trust is a North Star concept, she explains.

“What we’re trying to do is deliver a more secure but also simplified warfighting environment today. We have way too many networks and way too many systems that are really following an old model of protection. And in some cases that makes us vulnerable.

“In a lot of cases, it makes it really hard to use the systems. You have to be very welltrained to do basic things in certain instances. And so we want it to just be much easier for our warfighters to do basic things like login once and be able to get into everything that you need to get into.

“The most important thing to me is getting to a future world where we can fight in one warfighting environment with our joint partners and our allies.”

The third Line of Effort is around the workforce, involving taking care of all of the people that are the most important investment in our warfighting enterprise, and ensuring they are equipped with digital skills.

“Our digital university has been a great enabler there because our curriculum is always updating as fast as industry can possibly deliver,” Knausenberger says. “We have a variety of different digital pathways through there. And so whatever it is that an airman or a guardian wants to learn, they can go and learn and we can see what their skill sets are. And when we need something for the fight, we can very easily see who has a skill set that we can bring to bear.”

LoE four is portfolio management, based around ensuring dollars are spent efficiently and effectively, focused on a return on cybersecurity and mission performance, while the fifth LoT is excellence in core IT and mission-enabling services. “That’s really the tech stack, making sure that we’re delivering the services that people need to do their jobs.

And that’s everything from having reliable transport through compute, through end-user devices and DevSecOps services.

“And then finally data and AI. And that’s all about operationalising data for decision advantage, getting ready for embedding AI and ML responsibly and ethically into more of what we do on a day-to-day basis.

“The overall mission of all of this is to shorten the literal and proverbial kill chain and deliver decision advantage so that, as we go into whatever mission we have, people have the information. They can rely on their systems and they can conduct their mission with our joint partners and our allies. That we can continue to fly, fight and win.”

With technologies like ChatGPT having taken the world by storm, generative AI solutions will continue to hold a role in the DAF’s strategy going forward.

“Generative AI already has really taken the world by storm and it will continue to,” Knausenberger comments. “And as we adopt in the Department of Defense, there is going to be so much power there. Even in basic things like improving productivity and making it easier to bring knowledge to people’s fingertips.”

This technology also changes the threat landscape, however. “There was a Wall Street analyst that shared a proprietary model with ChatGPT and that caused some problems for that investment house,” Knausenberger comments. “We don’t want our airmen and guardians to inadvertently share controlled unclassified information or classified information with an AI bot that is then going to compile that into its knowledge and share it with the public.

“Likewise, we have to seize this as an opportunity because certainly anyone that is seeking to harm us and our allies will be using it and harnessing it to do harm to us. And so we have to be aware of the threats, we have to be aware of defensive actions against those threats, but we absolutely have to harness the opportunity and leverage these capabilities and we have to do it ethically and responsibly. And I think we have done a pretty good job of that thus far.”

Next steps and advice for the next CIO

For Knausenberger, the next steps involve taking some well-earned time to spend with family.

“Coming into this job I said I’d plan on doing two years. I’m coming up on three. And believe it or not, I’m actually the longestrunning CIO in quite some time because this job tends to be a two or three-year role.

“You need new blood, you need new ideas and new approaches to keep things fresh in a space that is going to continue to change.”

After a summer off, the next step will be a role back in the private sector. But Knausenberger won’t rule out a return in future.

“I would not be surprised if some amount of time away if I get a phone call from someone in the national security sector that says, ‘Boy, do I have a juicy problem for you to come and help with!’,” she says. “And I will have to give it some really good thought.”

At the time of speaking with Knausenberger, her successor has not been announced. But what advice would she give the next CIO?

“Whoever we choose, what I would tell them is to trust their team, trust the strategy and the roadmaps. We’ve got a plan in place, we’ve got momentum, we’ve got the people doing the right things.

“I would say trust the team to go forward and continue to remember that this is a broad enterprise,” she concludes. “We have a lot of stakeholders and we have to really make sure that we are driving toward that enterprise look, that we’re enabling our airmen and guardians and continuing to deliver.”