The challenges the Department of the Air Force is tackling this year point to a single theme: security has to move at the speed of the mission, everywhere the mission goes.

As the Air Force prepares for a record-breaking budget request , much needed high-tech missions are poised to move forward to increase command and control capabilities, enhance weapons cybersecurity, advance SATCOM capabilities and support other modernization needs moving forward. From August 24-26, Air Force partners and peers will gain insight into these initiatives at the Department of the Air Force Information Technology and Cyberpower Training and Education Event (DAFITC).

This year’s theme, “Accelerating the Digital Edge: From Enterprise to Orbit,” frames the edge not as a fixed perimeter but as a continuous digital thread that connects enterprise networks, tactical operations and orbital assets. The event is expected to draw more than 4,000 Air Force and Space Force leaders, private-sector innovators, and mission partners to Montgomery, Alabama to attend 140-plus breakout sessions and an exhibit hall of over 200 vendors.

In a word, this year’s DAFITC’s theme all comes down to trust: trusted endpoints, trusted communications, trusted partners and Zero Trust. Here’s what you can expect.

The Zero Trust clock is running, at enterprise scale

The Air Force is standing up Zero Trust across its global footprint. Zero Trust is a “never trust, always verify” security model that assumes no user, device or network connection is trustworthy by default.  The Air Force now has an effort underway to modernize networks at 187 bases and protect information at every classification level for roughly a million users. It is a decisive move, and the deadline is firm. The Department of Defense (DoD) is working toward target-level zero trust by fiscal 2027 and advanced levels by fiscal 2032. Delivering security at that scale, without slowing operations, is one of the defining engineering challenges of the year.

Zero Trust only holds if the endpoint can be trusted

Architecture is only as secure as the devices connected to it. The Air Force is enforcing its “Comply to Connect” standard to keep non-compliant computers and software off the network, checking devices against security pillars that include endpoint firewalls, current patches, digital certificates, data-at-rest encryption and anti-malware protection. As generative AI gives adversaries faster ways to find and exploit flaws, the endpoint has become a priority worth defending in its own right, not just as an afterthought behind the perimeter.

Moving from reactive defense to proactive, coalition-ready operations

DAFITC keynote speaker Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, who leads the Department of Defense Cyber Defense Command and directs DISA, has described the shift plainly: the Air Force network needs to be treated as a “critical weapons system”. This means a move from reactive network defense toward continuous, proactive operations, built on a “never trust, always verify” model that enables an agile, data-centric Mission Partner Environment. The goal is to campaign against systemic vulnerabilities and threat actors rather than chase individual alerts, and to bring coalition partners in quickly without standing up isolated networks for each one.

The tactical edge does not get a pass on security

Zero Trust assumes constant contact with a central identity provider. That assumption breaks down at the tactical edge, where operators work in denied, disrupted, intermittent and low-bandwidth conditions. In critical conditions, authentication can fail exactly when it is needed most. Designing resilience in from the start, so that forces can operate continuously and communicate securely when links drop, is central to DAFITC’s “from enterprise to orbit” ambition. It is where enterprise policy meets the realities of the field.

The workforce is the force multiplier

None of this happens without people. Across the services, leaders are modernizing how the cyber workforce is understood, qualified and developed, from career-field management to digital platforms to the data strategy behind talent decisions. Several DAFITC tracks focus squarely here, on upskilling for the AI age and building the digital talent the mission depends on. Technology sets the ceiling; the workforce determines how much of it the force can actually use.

Finding trusted endpoints, people, strategies and communications

The USAF is part of the DoDIN, comprised of 15,000 unclassified, classified networked and cloud environments. It is one of the world’s largest networks of networks and, arguably, its most sensitive conglomeration of networks. It is subjected to nearly 800,000 cybersecurity incidents EACH DAY. As the Department moves forward it requires endpoints, people and communications it can trust. DAFITC will feature sessions, exhibits and vendors who exemplify that trust and can take the AF to the next level in its cyber maturity.

To learn how TSG-certified voice and video endpoints, the proven altOS secure mobile platform and the integration of mission services come together to help you access the secure communications that support DAFITC’s priorities, stop by Booth #414. Meet CIS Secure in Mongomery and see how their TEMPEST-compliant products provide secure comms, deliver secure endpoints and protect you from enterprise to orbit.