Despite a pandemic, 2020 has not been a terrible year for the defense industry. Layoffs have remained low while contracts have continued to be awarded. To be sure, stimulus packages helped the layoff situation as contractors covered long stints of hosting employees on overhead. However, the defense industry adapted to the work from home lifestyle, learning how to finally bring telework onboard successfully. There are silver linings sometimes. While this year has remained stable, the question is whether or not it will continue into 2021. As budgets tighten around the country after continued unemployment rates, it wouldn’t be surprising if defense contractors feel the same. Here’s hoping we avoid furloughs or shutdowns.

Layoffs Impacting the Defense Industry

Cisco Cisco headquarters is getting a little bit smaller after the organization recently released plans to layoff 101 employees at its San Jose, CA location. Cisco’s layoff plans including giving WARN notices to software engineers, product managers, program managers, and data scientists.

“Over the coming weeks and months, Cisco will increase our investments in key business areas that will drive customer satisfaction and partner profitability going forward and reduce investments in others. We will be restructuring parts of our business as a result. Our employees are our priority and we are committed to providing our full support to those transitioning to new roles or teams within Cisco or leaving the company. Where possible, we will offer employees options that enable them to make decisions that best suit their career goals and personal circumstances,” said a Cisco spokesperson to CRN in an email.

We all know that cybersecurity weighs heavily on everyone’s minds right now – especially for the federal government after the SolarWinds compromise. While phishing email tests are helpful tools for companies to administer in order to keep employees watchful for cyber attacks, in 2020, some GoDaddy employees are feeling like the company went too far with their end of the year tests. After a season of announced layoffs, instead of bringing holiday cheer with singing loud for all to hear, GoDaddy sent email phishing tests that announced holiday bonuses.

NBC affiliate KPNX in Arizona obtained the December 14 email that was sent to staff that read: “Happy Holiday GoDaddy! 2020 has been a record year for GoDaddy, thanks to you! Though we cannot celebrate together during our annual Holiday Party, we want to show our appreciation and share a $650 one-time Holiday bonus!” the email continued. “To ensure that you receive your one-time bonus in time for the Holidays, please select your location and fill in the details by Friday, December 18th.”

Moral of the story: some years are better than others to dangle cash in front of your employees to test their phishing scam savviness. And of course, for employees, if your company announces it’s a dry year, void of bonuses, holiday bonus emails that require you to fill out personal information that the company already has is probably a scam.

Hiring impacting the Defense Industry

Leidos Recent ruling of the $7.7 billion Navy IT contract that was held up in courts for nine months is now affirmed to Leidos. The team can get to work filling open positions to support the Navy’s Next Generation Enterprise Network – Recompete Service Management, Integration and Transport (NGEN-R SMIT). A wide range of network services are needed to support this contract – software development, systems integration, and network defense. The Navy seeks maintain ongoing data and information technology services, as well as lean forward and transform their capabilities.

“We’re pleased the Court of Federal Claims ruled in our and the government’s favor,” said Leidos Defense Group President Gerry Fasano, in an email to Washington Business Journal. “We are ready for immediate program execution and success. Through this contract Leidos will support the important mission of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps by unifying and fortifying existing networks with the best technologies.”

Opportunity to Watch

It doesn’t seem that long ago that all we needed was a good antivirus program to keep the networks safe enough. However, this past year, cybersecurity seems to be in constant threat mode. Cybersecurity today needs a much more robust system that protects every single entry point – and that includes the equipment, the applications, as well as the network infrastructure. To enter, hackers only need to find one opening. Even individuals need to find layers of protection for their home networks – almost like laying multiple slices of Swiss cheese over each other in order to cover all of the holes. For organizations, artificial intelligence (AI) is the ticket to helping networks locate possible weaknesses, patterns, and threats. While AI can’t run the whole cybersecurity show, it can be used to detect threats and project future activity. Humans are still necessary in applying reasoning, interpretation, and decision-making. The ticket is to find a way for humans and AI to work together in cybersecurity. But the field of AI continues to explode and create more job opportunities in different field. It’s one of those capabilities that the good actors need to implement faster than the bad actors are already implementing in order to win the cybercrime ware that’s currently being waged.

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Jillian Hamilton has worked in a variety of Program Management roles for multiple Federal Government contractors. She has helped manage projects in training and IT. She received her Bachelors degree in Business with an emphasis in Marketing from Penn State University and her MBA from the University of Phoenix.