Meet Brian

Brian Hogbin is a cyber leader within Booz Allen’s Joint Combatant Command (JCC) account. Based out of our McLean, Virginia, office, he is responsible for the formulation, implementation, and assessment of the firm’s JCC cyber market strategy. He also specializes in assisting clients with cyber threat-associated risks and is responsible for overseeing the delivery of mission-critical cyber services and solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense Combatant Commands and Fourth Estate agencies.

Brian has served in cyber leadership roles at Booz Allen for the past 19 years. He has been responsible for the growth and execution of business units focused on cyber, systems engineering, and command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) for DOD. 

Prior to joining Booz Allen, Brian worked as a cybersecurity leader for TWM Associates, where he led the establishment and governance of the National Communication System Technology Assessment Laboratory. He also served as the director of operations for the Department of Navy Headquarters Network for consulting firm STI International.

Brian is a certified information systems security professional. He holds an M.S. in cybersecurity from the University of Maryland Global Campus and a B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

What makes you excited to come to work every day? 

Building relationships with people. As much as I enjoy cyber and IT, it is the opportunity to build quality relationships with clients, colleagues, and competitors that is most meaningful. The uniqueness of every individual that I experience enriches me every day. Booz Allen fosters a culture of collaboration, which promotes interconnectivity. The ability to collaborate with team members and customers to solve complex problems is incredibly enriching. It is amazing to experience how knowledge and productivity spill over from a collaboration to enhance everyone involved.

What’s a skill/lesson you learned from your family growing up, and how is it still relevant to you today?

Perseverance. My father strongly believed in pushing his children to try new things and allowing us to fail. He would demonstrate something one time only, then he allowed me to try on my own and make mistakes. When I was 13, he had me help re-roof the family home. He showed me how to work from the bottom, install the drip edge and underlayment, and then go row by row with the shingles. Once I had done the first row, he went to work on a different part of the house. I am sure he demonstrated to use at least four nails per shingle and that the nails should not be driven into or above the self-sealing strip. I did not pay attention and nailed them incorrectly. After two hours, he checked on me and let me know that I had to pull up everything I had accomplished and seal all the nail holes I had created. I had to do the work over again—but this time I paid attention. The work took several days, but I became proficient at roofing. At the time, I did not appreciate this lesson, but it was just another example of my father teaching me to persist despite difficulty or delay. I have learned the importance of working hard despite disappointment or failure. It has taught me to not let fear or apprehension of the unknown prevent me from trying something new. No matter how challenging, if you persevere, in time you will be successful in accomplishing what you started. 

What are three greatest challenges facing cybersecurity? 

1. Exponential pace of change by the adversary. Cybersecurity vendors use AI and machine learning (ML) to prevent cyber attacks. There is increasing evidence that sophisticated hackers have begun to use AI and ML capabilities to perform adaptive and more sophisticated attacks. 
2. Migration to DevOps. Organizations are increasingly switching to DevOps to increase efficiency, speed, and responsive delivery of IT services, yet this transition can introduce serious cybersecurity threats if not done properly. Improper cybersecurity governance in the DevOps process can result in misconfigurations of security groups and storage environments, resulting in exposure of sensitive data. Existing heuristics based on anomaly detection become ineffective in a DevOps environment, as the environment is in a constant state of change. 
3. Transition to the cloud. The increase in multicloud environments increases the attack surfaces of the organization while driving an increased reliance on third-party vendors for software and services. This leads to an increase in supply chain attacks that traditional governance models may not take into account. 

How does your work change the world?

The promulgation of data and devices becoming increasingly connected impacts the daily life of everyone on the planet. Increasingly personal devices such as smart watches, TVs, refrigerators, toys, and automobiles share data and communicate with each other to make our lives more efficient—even fun. But these interconnected devices can only yield this benefit if they are reliable and secure. The traditional approach to securing our information systems has been largely reactive. At Booz Allen, we develop proactive security measures using automation, orchestration, and AI to greatly improve the security of these systems and the underlying data. 

Why is it important for Booz Allen to be a diverse and inclusive workplace?

Maintaining a diverse and inclusive culture promotes innovation and creativity. Having a team with different backgrounds, ages, or genders results in different and unique ways of thinking about a problem. In cyber, this is critically important, as threat actors also come from unique and disparate backgrounds. The greater the diversity of experience that Booz Allen can offer to defend our clients’ networks, the better our ability to successfully protect them.