Digital transformation has elevated businesses to reach the utmost desired status. To attain such a pedestal, many organizations have positions for great and capable leaders in their colleges. To have such a personality, one must possess exceptional attributes that make a difference while facing decisiveness-requiring situations. In the vast and constantly evolving sphere of cybersecurity, very few astonishing leaders have made a mark in the various sectors. Garrett, a Ph.D., is one of the significant industry leaders who has mastered the art of digital transformation.
Dr. Garrett Smiley is Vice President (VP) of Digital Infrastructure and Technology Strategy and Chief of Staff to the Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) at Maximus. Maximus is a leading provider of health and human services worldwide. Garrett is responsible for operational oversight, strategy development for machine learning and artificial learning, cloud abilities, digital structures, project leadership, and decisive support. As Vice President, Garrett is championing Maximus’ motto, “Moving people forward.” He emphasizes that the company harnesses its decades of experience to design, develop, and deliver innovative and impactful health and human service programs. He and his peers are driven by a mission to strengthen communities and improve the lives of those the company serves. It uses many security tools that are standard for organizations protecting sensitive customer data in support of continuous monitoring and rapid response.
Garrett highlights that Maximus was founded in 1975, is headquartered in McLean, VA, and has offices around the globe in Australia, Canada, India, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the UAE, the UK, and the USA. It stands ahead of the competition by providing exceptional services that fall under its accreditations, including Benchmark Portal Certified Center of Excellence, CMMI, FedRamp, ISO 9001, ISO 20000, ISO 27001, NCQA, and Quality Improvement Organization (QIO)-Like Entity, SEQOHS, SSAE18, and URAC. Maximus’ tangible results include 195,000 job seekers in its caseload worldwide and 1.5 million health assessments completed in the U.S.A. and U.K. each year. “Maximus stakeholders in our Contracts, IT, Legal, Procurement, and Security departments partner with each other to stay abreast of both current and developing compliance requirements,” he adds.
A Plethora of Services
Maximus is a global leader in providing health and human services. The world is in need of programs that cater to individuals’ health and wellbeing. Its services—Health and Wellness, Welfare and Safety Net, Citizen Services, Federal Agencies, and Employers—are listed below:
Health and Wellness: From health assessments, eligibility, and enrollment support to independent medical reviews and even intensive case management for substance abuse diversion programs, Garrett’s team helps governments at all levels serve beneficiaries and providers (70% market share of Medicaid managed care administration).
Welfare and Safety Net: The government is the largest source of funding and resources to address complex social challenges like poverty, health disparities, and addiction. He works with the government to harness this power by helping agencies coordinate, align, and deliver services to most effectively transform lives and achieve policy outcomes.
Citizen Services: Whether applying for a passport, requesting aid in the wake of a national disaster, researching health risks for a planned trip abroad, responding to the census, or engaging in any of the many programs and services that the government operates, citizens have certain expectations of the government. “We help the government rise to those expectations,” adds Garrett.
Federal Agencies: Maximus Federal is the government’s go-to partner for transforming outdated approaches, technologies, and skill sets, enabling the government to meet mission demands and satisfy the expectations of the citizens it serves.
Employers: Garrett explains, “Jobs don’t just have the power to transform lives; they also enable employers and communities to thrive and grow.” He helps governments prepare more workers to join the workforce and helps employers successfully accommodate non-traditional workers in the workplace.
The primary and significant cybersecurity challenges that Maximus’s clients solve relate directly to their compliance requirements, and they deliver those services in a compliant way.
"Jobs don't just have the power to transform lives; they also enable employers and communities to thrive and grow."
Acquiring the certifications
In today’s business scenarios, companies are facing data loss and the associated reputation harm, mainly when there is long-lasting harm. Garrett and his team mitigate data loss risk through ongoing vigilance supported by Maximus monitoring tools and continued adherence to client compliance requirements.
Since the inclusion of cybersecurity in businesses, the U.S. government has offered guidance and direction for cybersecurity products and services contractors for many years. However, there was no credibility assurance for these contractors to prove to their clients. DIB contractors have the potential to hold and utilize sensitive government data to create and provide goods and services. CMMC ensures that this data should be protected and kept safe, as government agencies do.
The U.S. government provided cybersecurity guidance for contractors for many years, but there was no way for contractors to prove how strong their cyber programs were. CMMC introduces a new set of certifications, conducted by third-party assessors. Contractors must achieve accreditation before they can win future government contracts. As per CISA, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0 program is the next iteration of the CMMC cybersecurity model. It streamlines requirements to three levels of cybersecurity and aligns the requirements at each level with well-known and widely accepted NIST cybersecurity standards. Currently, CMMC is only applicable to DoD contractors; nevertheless, the DoD is making amends by beginning to require certification with certain contracts. The possibilities of CMMC may apply to non-DoD government contractors in the near future.
Maximus protects client data based on the client requirements and the sensitive level of that data. It is currently pursuing Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) certification as required for our federal contract work with the Department of Defense (DoD). Maximus, also a contractor, is robustly pursuing CMMC and DoD IL5-related certifications. Moreover, it has tightly aligned the OCDIO’s strategic roadmap with the corporate growth-minded strategy and its customers’s compliance and cybersecurity requirements. “Finding economies of scale in a secure, functional way will provide us with long-term success,” says Garrett. Lastly, he also exclaims that attacks will continue to become more sophisticated, and detection methods ought to keep up. Vendors will continue to consolidate offerings and features as ‘one-stop shops’ to garner all of the increasingly tight cybersecurity budget dollars.
