President’s Biden executive order (EO) on improving the nation’s cybersecurity gave Federal agencies 90 days to develop a Zero Trust strategy among a slew of other deadlines. But according to an official from the Small Businesses Administration (SBA), communication remains a significant challenge in meeting this deadline. […]

The Biden administration issued its cybersecurity executive order (EO) in May 2021, giving marching orders to Federal agencies to move to zero trust security architectures, among other directives. During a SCGov panel discussion today, Federal chief information security officers (CISOs) shared how they’re leveraging their agency’s previous programs around zero trust to fulfill the obligations of the EO. […]

With cybercriminals becoming more sophisticated at disguising themselves as legitimate network users, a top Defense Department (DoD) IT official said this week that the Pentagon’s move to zero trust security architectures gives the agency a “fighting chance” to detect and eject hackers before they can do much damage. […]

According to a recently released Tripwire survey, most security professionals in the private and public sector described their zero trust security adoption as either progressing, or even well-developed, but also in need of more work. […]

The zero trust journey can present several challenges for organizations, with funding being just one of them, but Steven Hernandez, chief information security officer at the Department of Education, said the biggest hurdle he sees with zero trust comes down to cultural challenges. […]

Cloud security provider Zscaler said that its Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) service has received a provisional authorization to operate at Impact Level 5 as published in the Defense Department’s Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide. […]

In addition to facing cyber threats from nation-states, both government and private organizations have been the victims of an increased volume of ransomware attacks from criminal organizations over the last two years. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official emphasized this week that organizations need to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity on their systems in order to guard against the uptick in ransomware attacks. […]

As Federal agencies approach the six-month mark since President Biden issued his Cybersecurity Executive Order (EO) in May, Federal officials are pointing to the zero trust, supply chain risk management, and data aspects of the EO as the greatest opportunities to make a difference in shoring up security. […]

Five months after the debut of the Biden administration’s sweeping Cybersecurity Executive Order, Federal agencies are “highly engaged” in grappling with the order’s mandate for migration to zero trust security architectures, both on the planning and funding fronts. […]

With President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) directing Federal agencies to begin moving to zero trust security architectures, agencies already have begun to make the shift. However, progress on zero trust migration – which some Federal officials termed a “paradigm shift” at an ATARC webinar today – will look different for every agency. […]

When implementing a successful zero trust architecture, Federal chief information officers (CIOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) encourage agencies to look towards modernization and to think of zero trust as an “integration architecture.” […]

As the Department of Defense (DoD) builds more artificial intelligence (AI) into its technology and operating procedures, the security of those technologies and the networks they operate will only increase in importance, said the director of the DoD’s Joint AI Center (JAIC) at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit on October 8. […]

Several Federal government officials involved in migrating government agencies toward adoption of zero trust security principles agreed during a September 30 ATARC webinar that agencies need to first think through the goals of adopting zero trust architectures before undertaking technology deployments to get there. […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking to enhance its cybersecurity efforts with zero trust security concepts, according to the Corps’ Chief Information Officer (CIO), Dovarius Peoples. […]

Federal IT professionals often feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. Their “customers” – which include every U.S. citizen as well as legions of internal stakeholders – want them to deliver modern services faster, more securely, and more cost-effectively at a time when workloads and expectations have never been greater. Couple this with record employee transitions and steep competition for talent, and IT professionals face a Herculean mission. […]

President Biden has announced his intent to nominate John Sherman as chief information officer (CIO) at the Department of Defense. Sherman has served as acting CIO at DoD since January. […]

Adversaries have moved beyond malware to conduct more sophisticated cyberattacks, according to CrowdStrike’s 2021 Threat Hunting Report released this week. […]

As the military moves towards utilizing a Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) data fabric across operations, the Army and other military departments are increasingly engaging in operations across multiple domains. In order to maintain staunch cybersecurity practices in these environments, the military must move to zero trust, Army CIO Raj Iyer said Sept. 8. […]

The Biden administration’s latest set of directives that aim to move Federal agencies toward zero-trust security architectures and more cloud adoption are receiving positive initial reviews from Federal IT officials, although leaving some to wonder where funding will come from for agencies to follow through on the directives. […]

Like all Federal agencies, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is working on complying with President Biden’s cyber executive order (EO). To help comply with the EO and aid OPM’s modernization mission, the agency has funding requests out to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) Board to help OPM with the move to zero trust and cloud modernization, OPM CIO Guy Cavallo said August 31. […]

The only way to successfully build software now and in the future at scale while moving at a pace of relevance is with development, security, and operations (DevSecOps), the chief software officer (CSO) at the U.S. Air Force (USAF) said during a virtual summit held by ATARC on August 31.   […]

An August 10 memo from Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is providing instructions to Federal agencies about how to comply with security guidance of “critical software” as directed by President Biden’s executive order (EO) on cybersecurity issued in May. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a fresh update on its priority open recommendations for the Department of Defense (DoD), showing that while the Pentagon has been busy trying to satisfy numerous prior recommendations from the watchdog agency, its overall to-do list from GAO is staying about the same because a steady stream of new recommendations are being added. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a new training guide to help IT professionals advance their careers in the Federal and state, local, tribal, and territorial cybersecurity communities. […]

Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said today that working to update the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) – and generate more useful Federal agency cybersecurity metrics as a result – are among his top priorities currently. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has named 18 firms it will work with on NCCoE’s Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture Project. […]

With President Biden’s cyber executive order (EO) guiding Federal agencies towards implementing zero trust architectures, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already created a Zero Trust Playbook to help outline the change and create guidelines, the Corps’ CIO said today. […]

U.S. Air Force Chief Software Officer (CSO) Nicolas Chaillan this week emphasized the importance of a moving toward zero trust security architectures within the Department of Defense (DoD) – a process that DoD Acting CIO John Sherman has said is a top tech priority for the Pentagon. […]

Defense Department Acting CIO John Sherman emphasized the Pentagon’s firm intent to move further toward adopting cloud infrastructures and zero trust security concepts at a June 29 hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems. […]