Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/848773
12 The PCB Design Magazine • July 2017 by Stephen Las Marias I-CONNECT007 For the July issues of our monthly publica- tions at I-Connect007, we spoke with a sam- pling of professionals whose experience centers on the military and aerospace world, including experts from design, PCB manufacturing, and assembly. Joining us for a frank discussion were Freedom CAD's COO Scott Miller; Lenthor Engi- neering VP of Sales/Engineering John Rolle and VP of Marketing Dave Moody; and Zentech's CEO and President Matt Turpin and VP John Vaughan. Our discussion centered on the challenges associated with military work, including the new regulatory requirements for cybersecurity, dealing with leaded vs. lead-free components, and mil/aero's similarities (and differences) with the commercial world. The discussion started on the PCB design perspective, whether the biggest challenges are more technical or more centered on the regula- tory side. "I can tell you from our perspective, this year and going forward, the rules of engage- ment have really begun to change because of cybersecurity, and that's having a huge impact on the engineering services community—how to comply with cybersecurity requirements that are now being mandated to us as external sup- pliers," explained Freedom CAD's Miller. "It's something we're spending a lot of time on. We've got work to do. We are ITAR-compliant, but cybersecurity compliance is a far deeper lev- el of compliance than ITAR information man- agement. That's huge. We're engaging with a consultant to help us understand how we can fulfill those requirements. And I think that's go- ing to be a game changer for a lot of the smaller companies that currently participate in the mil/ aerospace marketplace, because there are some serious costs associated with cybersecurity man- agement. "It's a year-end objective. They want to have a supply base compliant, or at least have iden- tified where the holes are, the weaknesses are, as far as we can tell, but there's a huge impact. New Challenges Facing Mil/Aero Segment FEATURE