In May 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14028 on improving government cybersecurity. The order required that all federal agencies develop a plan to implement zero trust architectures for their IT systems, and set aggressive timelines for achieving this goal by 2024. The National Institute of Standards and Technology defines zero trust as “an evolving set of cybersecurity paradigms that move defenses from static, network-based...

In May of 2021, the White House issued the Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, mandating that federal agencies begin taking decisive steps to modernize their approach to cybersecurity, with zero trust as the foundation. In that time, federal agencies have been diligently working to meet the Executive Order’s mandates. Last month, the Office of Management and Budget released M-22-16 Administration Cybersecurity...

Cyber threats to federal agencies continue to evolve, requiring equal agility in defending against them. To address the scope of the risk, the White House released Executive Order (EO) 14028 on improving the nation’s cybersecurity in May 2021. It outlined security best practices, including how the federal government must advance toward a zero trust architecture to keep pace with today’s dynamic and increasingly complex cyber threat...

The Office of Management and Budget issued its guidance in January on meeting the requirements for agency networks to implement a zero trust architecture strategy. The purpose of the mandate is to defend against sophisticated penetrations by adversaries, whether nation-states or criminals, and it emphasized that identity management and access controls are key components. Taken together, identity and access controls mean that privileged access...

Is your agency worried about Zero Trust compliance, with zero plan in place? You’re not alone. In this webinar, Pluralsight’s Sr. Security Author Brandon DeVault breaks down what you need to know about Zero Trust so your team—and your tech—are ready for it. Don’t worry. It’s not as daunting as it seems. You’ll learn how to: Create an action plan and timeline for your workforce to comply with the recent...

Emerging Technologies are evolving at a faster pace than ever before, especially as agencies aim to implement Zero Trust Security. Throughout the adoption and integration of Zero Trust principles into any cybersecurity strategy comes with many challenges and questions. Tune into this panel to hear from topic experts on the importance of emerging technologies while agencies are in the process of adopting and implementing Zero Trust Principles.

OMB’s memorandum M-22-09, “Moving the U.S. Government Towards Zero Trust Cybersecurity Principles,” is setting deadlines for implementation across the government. Specifically, the memo calls out the end of FY24 – an extremely short time frame in government circles – for multiple actions across the CISA-defined five pillars of a Zero Trust Architecture. One of the most important actions is for agencies to move to...

Most IT leaders acknowledge the growing threat from ransomware, however many state and local governments are unprepared to prevent or respond to it. When an agency does not know the blast radius of an attack, whether sensitive data is affected, or how long it may take to recover, the only option they are often left with is to pay up. In order to protect themselves against an organized, well-resourced attacker agencies need a strong security po...

Identity underpins every public sector priority today, and identity modernization unleashes the full potential of digital government. The 2022 Okta Gov Identity Summit brings together top leaders from the public sector community to address the urgency of identity modernization. They will discuss how cloud-smart identity accelerates zero trust adoption, strengthens national defense, fights fraud, and improves customer experiences. Experts will...

The federal government places a lot of emphasis on basic cyber hygiene practices that employees should use, such as using unique passwords for every application and changing them regularly, guarding against clicking on suspect links buried in emails, and backing up data frequently. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) offers a wide range of cyber hygiene services to help agencies improve their cybersecurity postures thro...