Van Scoyoc Associates

? Norma Krayem, Van Scoyoc Associates Vice President and Chair of the Cybersecurity, Privacy & Digital Innovation Practice offered comments to Charlie Mitchell of Inside AI Policy regarding the new RFI addressing President Trump’s Executive Order that deals with AI issues.?“The new RFI is focused on the mandate in the AI executive order which requires an action plan to be delivered to the President by July 2025.?It lays out a singular objective, asking for key actionable plans for a select group of criteria,” said Norma.?Norma noted that “for those who have been working on AI issues, particularly with the U.S. government, the issues identified in the AI RFI show commonality in approach to target issues in ways that help foster innovation in a focused way.” Norma noted that, “the RFI does not identify any prescriptive views on issues, rather lays out clear topics that would need to be addressed. For those who have worked on the cybersecurity and security aspects, the RFI focuses on open-source development, explainability and ‘assurance’ of AI models, cyber, data privacy and security ‘throughout the lifecycle of AI systems development deployment’ to include security against AI model attacks, all of which is critical.”?“Ultimately,” Norma noted that, “wherever you are in SLTT, non-profit or industry, there are key issues in here that anyone focusing on AI should participate in -- the new Administration has made clear that it wants industry input into the process, and ultimately the AI plan, so ensuring all views are shared will be critical to this process.” ? #AI #cybersecurity #cybersecuritymandates #regulatorypolicies #criticalinfrastructure To read the full article, click here:

VSA is excited to welcome Holten Stringer back to the firm as an Associate Vice President.?For the last year, Holten was on Capitol Hill working for the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee where he served as lead staff for the Speaker’s Bipartisan Task Force on AI. Holten worked across multiple Congressional committees and with Congressional leadership to develop comprehensive AI policy recommendations and key findings, culminating in this influential report (https://lnkd.in/egfWxDck)?to Congress.?Please join us in welcoming Holten back to VSA!

Last week, VSA Vice President Leslee Gilbert spoke at the UIDP Bay Area Forum 2025, held this year at the global headquarters of @Synopsys Inc in Sunnyvale, CA.?Dr Gilbert delivered remarks on the current trends in federal research funding and models for coordinating R&D resources to maximize impact. Attendees discussed ways to strengthen and modernize university-industry partnerships to drive research and innovation, to the benefit of society.? #UIDP #vanscoyocassociates

VSA's Harry Glenn was honored to participate in the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA’s) POWERS Summit and Expo hosted by Port Tampa Bay.? A record number of ports and port leaders are participating in the three-day summit to explore ways in which the port industry can increase efficiency and enhance our nation’s supply chain. #vanscoyocassociates #AAPAPOWERS #porttampabay

Congratulations to VSA Vice President Jim Crum for being invited to serve on the Board of America’s Watershed Initiative (AWI)!? AWI is a collaborative organization working with hundreds of business, government, academic, and civic organizations to find solutions for the challenges of managing the Mississippi River and the more than 250 rivers that flow into it.

Norma Krayem, Van Scoyoc Associates Vice President and Chair of the Cybersecurity, Privacy & Digital Innovation Practice spoke to Jacob Livesay of Inside Cybersecurity on water sector cyber risk management under the Trump administration.?Norma indicated “it’s a guarantee that we’ll see a full restart effort in the incoming Trump administration on water cybersecurity. It’s a known threat and risk, and we’ve already seen successful infiltration of water and wastewater treatment centers in the U.S.”?Norma noted that the “core challenge is that the EPA does not appear to have the regulatory authority it needs to address cybersecurity risks.”?Norma reinforced that??“the prior focus on attempting to give the mandate to the states, through EPA delegated authority, under the Safe Drinking Water Act, clearly did not work. But the incoming Administration does not necessarily mean that it will take a deregulatory approach to cybersecurity overall, and in the water industry.”?Norma said, “national security and cybersecurity issues have long been managed differently than normal regulatory issues.”?She highlighted the RNC Platform reinforced their principals that they believe that they should use “all [the]?tools of National Power to protect our Nation's Critical Infrastructure and Industrial Base from malicious cyber actors.” ? #water cybersecurity #cybersecurity #cybersecuritymandates #regulatorypolicies #criticalinfrastructure #watersecurity #watercybersecurity To read the full article, click here: ?

VSA's Leslee Gilbert was honored to deliver the plenary speech at the SSTI 2024 Annual Conference in Phoenix, AZ today. The conference brings together hundreds of?practitioners and policymakers working to strengthen their regions through science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.?

Norma Krayem, Van Scoyoc Associates Vice President and Chair of the Cybersecurity, Privacy & Digital Innovation Practice spoke to Charlie Mitchell of Inside AI Policy on President-elect Trump’s selection of the new?Artificial Intelligence and Crypto Czar.?Norma noted that it will be “interesting to see the approach to combine AI with crypto in the new czar.?Both are serious and important topics on their own and cross a wide variety of agencies and issues. It will be important to see what the priorities will be early on, and a plan overall once the administration gets going.”?Krayem said, “Certainly, the issues around crypto, the need to set clear guardrails and establish regulatory certainty between the SEC and CFTC, is mission critical for the industry.”?But Norma noted that “AI covers such wide ground that we’ll look forward to seeing how those issues flow.”?Norma highlighted that “clearly having someone with such a strong tech background brings great benefits,” and adding that naming Sacks as head of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology “will also help on the broader administration-wide efforts that will be needed to allow for both robust discourse with stakeholders, but also critical interagency coordination efforts.” #AI #Crypto #cybersecurity #cybersecuritymandates #regulatorypolicies #cybersecurity #FinTech #Cryptocurrency #DigitalAssets #ArtificialIntelligence #FinancialServices To read the full article, click here: ?

Norma Krayem, Van Scoyoc Associates Vice President and Chair of the Cybersecurity, Privacy & Digital Innovation Practice spoke to Charlie Mitchell of Inside AI Policy on President-elect Trump’s choice to nominate Russell Vought as the head of the Office of Management and Budget.?Norma noted that “as we look ahead to the incoming Administration’s efforts on AI policies, the fact that the new OMB nominee served in the same position in the prior Trump administration may provide some continuity in the approach.”?Norma highlighted that “in November 2020, then Director Vought issued OMB memo?M-21-06?which laid out key policy, legal and regulatory approaches for AI usage in the U.S. government.”?The memo “focused on the need to ensure that economic and national security issues, alongside privacy and civil liberties, human rights and the rule of law were considered by agencies when using AI, as well as with the broader implementation of technology and innovation.” Norma said, “the same themes around AI usage today remain critical, as were in that memo: the importance of safety and security, the need for public trust in AI, public participation, risk assessment and management, scientific integrity and information quality are all still crucial to manage. In fact, considering the leaps and bounds in AI development in the last four years, those core tenets are even more critical to maintain and support as we go forward.” #governmentcontractors?#cybersecuritymandates #regulatorypolicies #cybersecurity #AI #regulatoryharmonization #cybersecurity To read the full article, click here:

Norma Krayem, Van Scoyoc Associates Vice President and Chair of the Cybersecurity, Privacy & Digital Innovation Practice spoke to Sara Friedman of Inside Cybersecurity on a few key cyber policy issues we could expect to be a focus in the incoming Trump administration. Norma focused on the critical value of the Office of National Cyber Director (ONCD) which should “remain important to the incoming administration.”?Norma noted that “focusing on roles/responsibilities within the White House will be important” with a focus on in the White House “there is more than enough to do to on cyber to continue this office and its important role.”??Norma said “the NCD has also prioritized cyber regulatory harmonization, cyber workforce, other issues that are non-partisan and bipartisan in nature, items Congress also supports as well.” #governmentcontractors #cyberincidentreporting #cybersecuritymandates #regulatorypolicies #cybersecurity #AI #regulatoryharmonization #cybersecurity To read the full article, click here: ?