Federal Cybersecurity: Creating a Modern Response for Today’s Risks

Federal agencies struggle with tension between innovation and compliance as cyber threats evolve and AI becomes mission-critical. NIST's Risk Management Framework (RMF) faces scrutiny for complexity that slows transformative technology adoption. The Authority to Operate (ATO) has become a bottleneck, frustrating agencies with delays and manual processes misaligned with modern development practices. Peter O'Donoghue (Tyto Athene CTO) and Gaurav Pal (stackArmor CEO) join Keeping IT Brief to discuss modernizing implementation without discarding the framework. Peter O’Donoghue (Chief Technology Officer at Tyto Athene) Peter O’Donoghue has over two decades of experience in the technology industry, a history of executive leadership positions at several Fortune 500 companies, and a track record of success in cloud computing, cybersecurity, application dev, and IT modernization. Peter’s eye for building solutions that align to where the technology puck is moving, and his ability to drive the development of new products and services to drive growth, ensures that Tyto Athene remains at the forefront of driving meaningful innovation that achieves mission advantage. To learn more, please visit Peter on LinkedIn at . About Gaurav Pal (CEO at stackArmor, a Tyto Athene company) Gaurav “GP” Pal is the CEO and founder of stackArmor (a Tyto Athene company). He has over 20 years of digital transformation experience with large U.S. government, defense, healthcare and commercial organizations providing mission acceleration and assurance using commercial cloud services and automating the ATO process. He is a subject matter expert in helping organizations rapidly meet FedRAMP, FISMA RMF, DOD RMF and CMMC compliance. GP received the GCN Rising Star, Fed100 and Meritalk Cyber Defender awards for his role in successful cloud and security program implementations at U.S. federal agencies. He is currently a Board Member at the Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI) and Industry Project Leader for the ACT-IAC ATO-as-code initiative. GP is passionate and highly-skilled with a personal commitment to excellence and integrity – consistently building positive and mutually beneficial relationships with partners and government agencies. Connect with GP on LinkedIn . About Tyto Athene ( ) Tyto Athene delivers secure, mission-critical technology solutions that empower defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies to modernize infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity, and stay ahead of evolving threats. As a mission-driven integrator, the company combines deep technical expertise with a hands-on, collaborative approach to ensure government agencies and OCONUS teams have the tools needed for operational success. From network modernization to cyber defense, Tyto Athene helps organizations turn data into actionable insights, enabling information dominance and greater mission effectiveness. The company’s commitment to innovation and customer success drives the team to deliver solutions that enhance security, resilience, and communications across the government landscape. Learn more about Tyto Athene at . Keeping IT Brief with Mary Ann Brown features quick, insightful conversations with government and industry leaders on federal IT, cybersecurity, AI, and emerging technologies shaping the future of government operations. Don’t miss an episode—follow the show on your favorite podcast app. Explore all episodes and learn more:

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Federal Cybersecurity: Creating a Modern Response for Today’s Risks is an episode from Keeping IT Brief by Mary Ann Brown & Tracey Aubey.

This episode is 19:17 long.

This episode was published on Sep 30, 2025.

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