As technology evolves, so do the threats to its security. The remote work shift caused by the continuing pandemic has pressed security teams to reassess how they verify and allow access. Zero Trust is a strategy, not a product, which reimagines the way access is granted to users, to data and to applications. Devices, which used to be central to identity, now include personal computers and home internet connections, which are not government iss...

Identity management -- both for citizen customers and for an increasingly decentralized workforce -- is a complex challenge that combines security, privacy, CX and data-management considerations. Legacy systems often lack the interoperability and granular controls needed by users and admins alike, and weren’t designed to fully support the expectations set by the Office of Management and Budget with M-19-17.Thankfully, there is a growing...

In October of 2020, then-Defense Secretary Esper defined defense readiness as "our military’s ability to answer the nation’s call, and to fight and win, anytime, anywhere. … The question we must answer is this: if called upon to fight tonight, are we ready?" Ensuring that answer is "yes" demands change in every corner of the Department of Defense, and especially in the technology that will power tomorrow's military. Cybersec...

Whether it's delivering better care for veterans, transforming internal business processes to make federal employees more effective and efficient, or improving the citizen experience on federal websites, digital government aims to enable better government. New tools and technologies are an essential part of these efforts, but the true transformation takes place in the analog world -- rethinking business processes, changing the workplace cultur...

IT modernization has been a federal priority for years, but many agencies still struggle to turn that goal into a practical plan of action. Securing multi-year funding is one challenge, but the fundamental obstacle is often the sheer complexity of transforming government-scale systems. Smart, successful modernization demands a holistic approach that addresses several essential pillars: security, network infrastructure, multi-cloud architecture...

Most government agencies have made the journey to cloud since the Cloud First and Cloud Smart strategies came from OMB starting in 2010. Many organizations have more than one cloud. The challenge becomes blending the different types of cloud and service models to provide access to needed data, while at the same time protecting a much enlarged attack surface created by the large number of workers who are accessing the data remotely. If there is...

The 2020 election has ushered in a new president but we still face a very divided government. How will this impact the priorities and policies of the Biden Administration? No matter what, the transition to a new president will have a profound impact on outlook for government contracts in 2021 and beyond. Many top-line priorities will remain the same – a focus on COVID-19, cybersecurity, IT modernization and other technology driven initia...

If there was ever a question about the role of information technology in healthcare, the COVID-19 pandemic has answered it emphatically. Quickly analyzing large data sets and mapping the locations of cases around the world requires scale and power. Federal hospital systems (VA, Indian Health and Military Health System) are large users of the technology and the Department of Health and Human Services and its research centers fund research on a...

Eight years in, the Continuous Diagnostic and Mitigation program has matured and broadened its offerings significantly. The focus now is on deploying a threat intelligence framework for governmentwide use, integrating the AWARE risk-scoring algorithm and rolling out of security orchestration automation and response (SOAR) to automate vulnerability detection and defensive cyber operations. More extensive and sophisticated use of data in dashboa...

The Federal Data Strategy's action plan was reworked in response to the COVID-19 crisis, while state and local governments are simultaneously expanding health data initiatives and looking for more cost-effective data solutions. Add in the growing importance of data-intensive cyber threat detection and the broad potential of AI and automation, and it becomes clear: Agencies' data challenges are evolving rapidly, and a solid data strategy is mis...