Trilogy’s Bill McKenna to speak at 2025 Homeland Security Summit in November
- Randall Cottle
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
RESTON, VIRGINIA — October 16, 2025 — If you were to examine the most highly discussed topics during the course of the past year, Artificial Intelligence (AI) would certainly be in that group. AI impacts everything from how governments look to stay secure to social media, and the information shared by AI experts is worth its weight in gold.
One such subject matter expert (SME) is Bill McKenna of Trilogy Innovations, Inc., who said that the breadth and depth of AI is staggering. McKenna is among the speakers at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2025 Homeland Security Summit on November 12 in Reston, Virginia.
“Artificial Intelligence is exciting and scary at the same time,” McKenna said. “It spans everything from desktop workflows to drones — and today’s homeland security and military operations increasingly depend on it.”
McKenna has served as a key resource on AI in working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and the military. Headed by keynote speaker Kristi Noem, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the conference will feature McKenna as a panelist in a session entitled “AI Year in Review and the Road Ahead.” He noted that DHS encompasses 22 component agencies, and that CISA — which is responsible for protecting the nation’s 16 critical infrastructure sectors — is seeing each of those sectors increasingly shaped by the influence of Artificial Intelligence.
“The important thing is that we understand what AI is doing and how it best serves the government agency that needs it,” McKenna explained. “The goal for AI in many instances, as it relates to this important summit, is to help eliminate human error. We have to be able to protect the homeland. Every agency has its own unique mission, so the role of AI is as unique as the agency using it.”
The different missions, he said, range from countering weapons of mass destruction to the role of FEMA in natural disasters. Nonetheless, the adoption of AI has grown exponentially, and as it has grown we must ask ourselves if we are adopting the right things, if we are using AI models that are credible, and if we know how secure these platforms are.
“Future battles may well be fought by attacking security systems, not on the battlefield,” said McKenna. “And that battlefield will include websites, social media, and public records, and our cybersecurity posture will determine who wins the battle. It’s essential that we see where these threats are coming from and who the bad actors are.”
He also said that through Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), the practice of collection and analysis of information from publicly available sources, AI can help put the pieces together from a multitude of sources and datapoints to detect bad actors. That collection and analysis, he noted, must achieve a balance of personal liberties, detecting viable threats and defending the greater good.
The conference will pull together more than 300 senior level government contracting executives, presenting Trilogy with another opportunity for a small company on the big stage.
“This is important to Trilogy because it validates the work we’ve been doing at FBI CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services), and it expands it into other federal agencies in which national security interests are primary,” said McKenna. “We prove it through our actions, but we also have the people who are SMEs to talk about the technology, the policy, the mission and purpose, and the ‘why.’ Why are we doing this? Why does it matter?”
“We’re helping to answer the most basic questions at these levels. What does AI cost? Is it viable and secure, and does it work? Those questions matter. And Trilogy is leaning forward. We’re interested in solving problems for national security. That’s what we do.”
About Trilogy Innovations, Inc.
Trilogy Innovations, Inc., located in Bridgeport and Morgantown, West Virginia, is an SBA Certified 8(a) small and minority-owned systems and software engineering company that delivers superior technical solutions for a variety of industries across private and public sectors. By applying a strong work ethic and an unwavering commitment to excellence, Trilogy’s highly skilled and talented personnel have successfully applied these core values across a multitude of government agencies and businesses. Inc. Magazine named Trilogy to the Inc. 5000 for four consecutive years from 2022-2025. The company was also named a 2025 Elev8 GovCon Honoree by Orange Slices for demonstrating a culture of excellence for talent, partners, and clients, marking the second consecutive year Trilogy has received this recognition.
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