Video: FBI cybersecurity chief talks about aftermath of Wikileaks, Snowden, and 2016 election

in Security on November 11, 2016, 11:32 AM PST

The FBI has a long legacy of being at the forefront of technology, but managing those systems while keeping up with the latest advances in tech is an unforgiving task.

The FBI's Arlette Hart (left) was a featured speaker at the 2016 Structure Conference in San Francisco.
Image: TechRepublic

Arlette Hart's department at the FBI was created in 2001 when one of its agents, Robert Hanssen, was discovered to be a Russian spy. So, the recent intelligence leaks from Wikileaks and Edward Snowden are the kind of information security breaches that are critical to her work.

As chief information security officer at the FBI, she has the unenviable task of securing a ton of legacy systems while keeping the bureau on the cutting edge of the latest innovations in IT security.

SEE: Every cloud needs a cop: How the FBI secures its digital assets

I interviewed Hart on stage this week at the 2016 Structure Conference in San Francisco and we had a wide-ranging conversation that included topics such as:

How the FBI manages mobile devices in an environment that includes no BYOD.
The agency's approach to the cloud.
How the bureau manages security for its "supply chain" of contractors and partners.
What the effect of Wikileaks and Snowden has meant to the bureau, and to her job.

We also talked about the effect of the 2016 election on the FBI—which became involved in the election because the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails and the actions of FBI director James Comey. Hart explained how the FBI director is the only political appointee at the bureau, which is organized to stand apart from politics as part of its mission to guard against public corruption.

You can watch the full 20-minute conversation in the video below.