"We have to stay ready to get ready. We don't know when, if, and how that vulnerability can occur," said Jennifer Franks. Terry Gerton You have dug into aviation cybersecurity. That depends on a growing network of connected systems on the ground and the aircraft across federal departments. Was there anything that prompted this particular look? Jennifer Franks Yeah, absolutely. So what prompted this mandate was the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024. And that act included a provision for GAO to go in and evaluate both the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as the Transportation Security Administration’s roles and responsibilities managing cybersecurity, and specifically aviation cybersecurity. Terry Gerton The FAA and the TSA are supposed to work together here as you began the examination, what did you find both about their respective roles and how well they actually are working together? Find out how federal leaders are charting the future of health IT in our new e-book, sponsored by Maximus. Download today! Jennifer Franks That’s a very good question. So we found out that there are some deviances with how they are actually working and collaborating in this cybersecurity space. FAA has defined and clearly assigned roles and responsibilities for carrying out the agency’s related goals and objectives in this space. But in the contrast, TSA has not. And with the lack of really defining and clarifying your roles and responsibilities, what it is we found as we started to interview stakeholders from industry, including airlines and other industry related groups, they were confused as well with TSA’s role and responsibility and some of the guidance that was coming out. So, helping to streamline that information was something that we were talking with the stakeholders very early on that could have been helpful for them in their environment. Terry Gerton