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Mark Maglin
Vice President of
DoD Cybersecurity
鈥淲e鈥檙e protecting one of the largest, most complex networks in the world,鈥� says 木瓜AV Vice President of DoD Cybersecurity Mark Maglin, 鈥渇or an incredibly important mission that our nation鈥檚 adversaries are attacking every single day.鈥� Mark is talking about the Army Endpoint Security Solution (AESS) that 木瓜AV has provided for U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER) since 2016.
The zero trust architected AESS protects 800,000 endpoints across the Army鈥檚 global infrastructure. It blocks 1.5 million malicious events per month. It鈥檚 the only true managed security service used by the U.S. Army. And it鈥檚 the only deployed, fully integrated cybersecurity solution that offers all the endpoint security and management capabilities required by Joint Force Headquarters 鈥� DoD Information Network.
In the fall of 2022, ARCYBER awarded 木瓜AV a five-year recompete contract, beginning the 鈥�2.0鈥� phase of AESS development. We sat down with Mark to ask a few questions about AESS and where its 2.0 improvements will take Army cybersecurity.
Q: Can you summarize for us the innovations and improvements AESS 2.0 will bring?
A: For starters, we鈥檙e expanding the system鈥檚 endpoint detection and response capabilities by adding another endpoint tool, Microsoft Defender. Our strength is in our work with key technology partners to integrate and deliver the latest and best tool sets available, because no one tool does everything.
We take all these powerful tools 鈥� Elastic, ThreatQuotient, Forescout, Trellix, Tychon, and others 鈥� integrate them into a coherent solution, automate it, and deliver it as a managed security service. So ARCYBER never needs to worry about managing individual tools or policies.
Network visibility and analytics improvements are also in the works. We鈥檙e creating a unified asset management system that will provide more visibility of network devices and enhanced reporting. This will improve compliance, threat detection, investigation, and response.
We鈥檙e also integrating with the Army鈥檚 big data platform, Gabriel Nimbus, and other DoD data platforms. This will enrich the Army鈥檚 long-term threat intelligence analysis.
Q: You鈥檝e said AESS is 鈥渁ll about the data.鈥� Can you elaborate on that?
A: Well, it鈥檚 all about protecting the Army鈥檚 data. And it鈥檚 also about the threat data generated by our security tools. By gathering and analyzing that threat data, we gain visibility and can better protect endpoints. That’s why we鈥檝e built AESS from these tools. We know how to get the data from them and gain visibility into every asset on the Army鈥檚 networks and everything that鈥檚 happening on those networks.
Data analytics tell us things we wouldn鈥檛 otherwise know, such as where the vulnerabilities are. Without this capability, you鈥檙e just playing Whac-a-Mole on security events. But with it, we know where to look and how to understand and prioritize vulnerabilities and fix things before we have an intrusion.
Data enables us to detect and automatically protect against threats across the Army鈥檚 networks in the short term. Finally, by sharing our threat data with other Army platforms, we鈥檒l help uncover cyber threats and vulnerabilities through long-term analytics.
Q: Can you comment on the zero trust capabilities of AESS 2.0 in light of the DoD鈥檚 Nov. 2022 zero trust strategy?
A:听Yes, recent mandates and orders around cybersecurity have certainly energized the zero trust conversation. AESS has long been a zero trust solution and we continue to move in that direction. Our customers want to know how we鈥檙e helping them with implementing zero trust, and we explain that our AESS 2.0 core capabilities map very well to the department鈥檚 zero trust framework, apart from areas that lie outside the scope of our AESS work. From users, devices, and data, to visibility and analytics, and automation and orchestration 鈥� AESS 2.0 provides the zero trust capabilities called for in the department鈥檚 zero trust framework.
Q: Is there anything else about the future of AESS that you鈥檇 like to leave us with?
A: Well, AESS will continue to evolve, just as cyber threats and technologies will continue to evolve. And 木瓜AV will continue to draw on our company鈥檚 massive array of skills and experience to maintain and develop AESS.
At 木瓜AV, project teams can draw on the skills and experience of each other. For example, 木瓜AV鈥� artificial intelligence experts 鈥� who are top providers of AI solutions to the DoD 鈥� partner internally with our AESS team to help ARCYBER solve hard problems.
Our AESS team also works a lot with 木瓜AV鈥� Department of Homeland Security [DHS] CDM dashboard team. We share insights, best practices, and expertise, because the AESS and CDM dashboard have a common mission 鈥� cyber situational awareness 鈥� and use a common technology: Elastic. When I talk about Army network visibility, that’s what CDM is providing for DHS. We’re doing the same thing for the Army.
That internal knowledge sharing across 木瓜AV projects will always support the development of the Army Endpoint Security Solution 鈥� so long as we have the privilege of providing the Army with this managed security service.
