Cupcakes & OODA Loops: Inside(r) Insights Into the New Federal AI Cyber Playbook

Last episode, we left you hanging with a question: when it comes to cybersecurity, what is the federal government doing to both leverage AI and defend against AI threats and most importantly, are we moving fast enough? In the conclusion of this two-part series, Sean takes us inside a White House industry day convened at the request of the Federal CISO Council. He breaks down the two themes of the day that framed very different problems: using AI to optimize cybersecurity (running a SOC, governance, and compliance faster) and securing AI itself. Brian and Sean dig into the agentic SOC, the build-vs-buy question for federal agencies, why data fragmentation is the recurring obstacle in every AI conversation, the role of MCP and RAG in getting agents to the data, and live demos. Cupcakes and OODA loops make an appearance and Sean provides his verdict on whether the government is moving fast enough and his hacker name is finally revealed.