b'IIndsutry Perspective Rita Marty | Vice President of Security Architecture, AT&TJohn M. Dillard | Director, DOD 5G Strategy and Solutions, AT&T What do you think are the greatest network security threats that the Department of Defense (DOD) is facing today, and how can AT&T work with them?Rita Marty: Cyber threats are increasing both in frequency and intensity across the whole ecosystem, whether its the private sector or the defense space. While the DoD is especially at a high risk for cyberattacks, they have begun to take advantage of commercial technologies that can help them keep pace with near-peer adversaries, who have been rushing to adopt and deploy technology for military missions.There are, however, two factors that are putting the DOD at greater risk:First, the DOD should invest more in industry models like the Enterprise IT as a Service (EITaaS), which offers the military an overarching network operations framework that can provide critical network visibility and the ability to enforce compliance. Second, without an enterprise procurement and operational delivery model, the DOD is more vulnerable, due to the seams that exist within legacy infrastructure. These become attack surfaces that adversaries can easily penetrate.The pandemic has also had a considerable impact on DOD operations, as personnel had to adapt to working from home. Many realized that they have better network performance at home than at their work sites or on military bases. With this fact in mind, the DOD should examine and update policies to allow more commercialization of on-base networks, like the EITaaS model, which would provide a secure and high performing network infrastructure.Let me pivot to 5G:For the DOD, the capabilities of private 5G networks can allow our military forces to manage traffic locally that may be classified, while still taking advantage of our commercial network. With computing capabilities at the edge of the network, their critical data can be kept segmented and isolated for local processing.John Dillard:The DOD now considers their network as a core piece of warfighting architecture, which is a perspective that differs greatly from the past. They realize that they need highly secure and resilient networks that can enable artificial intelligence and data-driven initiatives.If you consider the tactical missions and global operations from a security perspective, the DOD needs to protect any signal through the proper cyber mechanisms, so that military forces can carry Government Business Council Securing the Nations Network | Page 12'