With the multiplication of advanced persistent threats, supply chain attacks, and ransomware putting our national security at risk, comprehensive network visibility is a cyber security requirement for U.S. federal agencies.Recognizing this reality, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a directive in August 2021 (OMB M-21-31) instructing executive branch departments and agencies to modernize their event logging. These requirements e...

The SolarWinds hack, increasing pressure on U.S. networks by foreign incursions, and software vulnerabilities underline the importance of effective internet operations management.Government and military networks need to have full end-to-end discovery and management capabilities. This includes both their on-premises and cloud attack surfaces. In fact, according to the 2021 Cortex Xpanse Attack Surface Threat Report, nearly 80% of exposures are...

The proliferation of internet-of-things sensors and an increasingly mobile workforce are pushing essential IT operations ever farther from the data center. Government employees and military personnel increasingly need robust capabilities in the field, and decision-makers need fast access to data analytics. All those factors are driving agencies' interest in computing that happens at the network edge.By placing compute power and analytics close...

For most agencies, the fall will mean a mixed bag of open offices and remote workforce. Agencies spun up solutions quickly for expanding and protecting networks and data, and now they are planning for supporting both approaches.What has worked for agencies with managed services and what is available to help as employees return to offices? Can collaboration tools substitute for face-to-face discussion? Are there scalable solutions that allow ag...

Office 365 is an incredibly powerful tool for boosting productivity and facilitating collaboration, but ensuring secure agency collaboration becomes a bit more complicated when it comes to managing guest users and external sharing.Controls must be configured correctly and out-of-the-box functionality is one-size-fits-all within the tenant. Agencies must ask themselves the following important questions: How do I enforce external sharing policie...

Software Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) have been very successful as an enterprise solution in the commercial world, but security concerns and the government’s former emphasis on working in offices has slowed its deployment in the public sector. Now, however, with large parts of the federal workforce working remotely, demand for access to the public internet has dramatically increased. Release of new interim guidance about TIC 3.0 a...