September 30, 2014, government agencies were to update their public networks to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) to comply with OMB guidance. As Federal agencies integrated IPv6 within their current operations, they now have the opportunity to employ new technology to optimize and enhance business functions and improve operational efficiencies and citizen services. The technological advances provided by the new protocol suite, including enha...

Data security threats continue to increase in number and sophistication. The growing use of collaborative technologies – from mobile devices and social media to virtualization and cloud computing – will continue to be one of the most significant factors impacting the security landscape. For these reasons, the federal government has increased efforts to minimize and prevent cyber security attacks, and will continue to place signific...

Over the past year, Office of Management and Budget Memorandums (OMB M) have made great strides ratcheting up FISMA requirements, but how do you know what you should be doing? OMB has formally improved and standardized the Authorization process by: Setting the goal to achieve “near-real-time security awareness for all government Information Technology (IT) systems Increasing authority for CIO’s (Federal Information Technology (IT)...

Don’t be caught with your guard down, your networks open to attack. Today’s threat environment is constantly evolving and maturing in levels of sophistication and capabilities. The old ways of doing things are no longer enough. Relying solely on the organization ‘s perimeter to detect and prevent these threats is full of holes. Security Operations must mature along with the threat and leverage the internal network as a sensor...

The federal government continues to face significant challenges in protecting the nation’s cyber-reliant critical infrastructure and federal information systems, and the cyber security news is just getting worse: The number of incidents reported by federal agencies to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team increased from 5,503 incidents in fiscal 2006 to 41,776 incidents in fiscal 2010. And according to a new report from the Office...