The White House’s Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) zero trust memo issued earlier this year, M-22-09, directed Federal agencies to migrate to zero trust security architectures, but a White House official this week said agencies’ success in that effort will look different for the policy’s various directives. […]

The House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee today approved a homeland security budget print for fiscal year (FY) 2023 that includes $2.93 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), representing a $334 million increase from FY2022 and a $417 million increase over the requested amount. […]

As Federal agencies are working to make progress on President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) and implement zero trust security architectures, agencies and their leaders must have a tight handle on their zero trust implementation plans, an official from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said this week. […]

The enduring shift toward at least partial work-from-home arrangements for government employees is creating new workforce possibilities for many agencies, but also new challenges on the technology security front for both Federal and state and local governments, experts said this week. […]

The sweeping cyber EO that followed included 11 sections of guidance and mandates designed to push Federal agencies to improve their cybersecurity posture and modernize their infrastructure. Many of the mandates involve building a zero trust architecture, which requires users and devices to be authenticated and authorized before accessing the agency network, applications, and data. […]

MeriTalk recently sat down with Fortinet’s Jim Richberg, public sector CISO, Peter Newton, senior director, product marketing, and Fortinet Federal’s Felipe Fernandez, senior director, system engineering, to gain their insights into how Federal technology teams can integrate all of the components of a zero trust architecture to achieve holistic cybersecurity in a cloud, hybrid, or closed environment. […]

Join MeriTalk and Merlin Cyber on June 1 at 10 a.m. for our complimentary Zeroing in on Application and Data webinar, where government and industry IT experts will put the spotlight on the data and application pillars of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Zero Trust Maturity Model. […]

Chris DeRusha, who wears the dual hats of Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Deputy National Cyber Director for Federal Cybersecurity in the Office of the National Cyber Director, charted some near-term policy goals on the security front during a keynote address on May 19 at MeriTalk’s Cyber Central May 2022 – Mission: Cyber Resilience in-person conference. […]

As President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) stretches past its first year, Federal agencies are at varied points in their progress on the EO’s orders. Federal leaders say it is important for agencies to approach the EO’s zero trust components strategically and understand their networks as they make the move to a zero trust architecture. […]

Implementing an effective zero trust architecture within an agency’s security framework has become pivotal to achieving cyber resiliency within the Federal government. But to be successful in the implementation of a zero trust architecture there are several elements agencies must keep in mind, according to several cyber experts. […]

Nearly two-thirds – 63 percent – of Federal mission and IT officials surveyed earlier this year believe their agencies are on track to meet the Office of Management and Budget’s zero trust security targets by the end of Fiscal Year 2024, according to new research published today by General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a zero trust planning guide May 6 for Federal administrators that provides an overview of how the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) can be used to develop and implement a zero trust architecture (ZTA). […]

As President Biden’s landmark cybersecurity executive order (EO) approaches its first anniversary on May 12, new research shows that most Federal cybersecurity decision-makers solidly back the aims of the EO, but also think that its initial timelines to implement zero trust security are unrealistic. […]

The Federal government is making a big push toward zero trust security architectures, but with an abundance of guidance on what makes a zero trust architecture successful, the looming question for many Federal agencies is ‘where do we start?’ Randy Resnick, senior advisor for the Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office at the Department of Defense (DoD), believes the first step is planning. […]

As Federal agencies look to bring a zero trust security architecture to their disparate agencies and missions, resources are the main obstacle for agencies, the chief information security officer (CISO) for the Department of Homeland Security’s Information and Analysis (DHS I&A) division said today. […]

As agencies strive to meet changing zero trust security requirements, an official from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said that he’s seeing an increased sense of urgency to implement those requirements to collectively move “the Federal fleet forward.” […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is working on a series of playbooks for Federal agencies to use as they proceed with implementing plans to migrate toward zero trust security architectures, and expects to begin releasing those within a couple of months, a senior GSA technology official said today. […]

A Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) official said today that the next focus area for work on the agency’s Thunderdome zero trust prototype project is user convenience. […]

The Department of Education was one of three agencies to receive funding from the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) for Zero Trust services, and the agency’s chief information officer Steven Hernandez said the agency is prioritizing the control pillar of the zero trust architecture with the funds. […]

The modernization of identity, credential, and access management (ICAM) has long been critical to improving Federal agency cybersecurity, and is only becoming more urgent due to President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) and associated policy directives requiring agencies to move to zero trust security architectures, government officials said on April 19 at a virtual event organized by FedInsider. […]

When implementing zero trust security architectures, an official from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said today that the real change is not a technology change, but instead a “cultural change” within the organization. […]

The long road to implementing zero trust security architectures may be driven by top-down policy directives and prioritizing technology pillars, but the art and science of communication and collaboration are showing up as vital inputs into organizing Federal agency technologists and network users to move toward the government’s zero trust goals. […]

The United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is hosting a Security at the Edge Cyber Challenge, with the multiple-phase challenge seeking to identify technologies that are capable of providing security-at-the-edge capabilities, according to a special notice posted on SAM.gov. […]

Federal agencies are continuing to work towards implementing zero trust security architectures, but which of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) security pillars will take precedence in zero trust development? […]

Following mandates, Federal law enforcement agencies have begun taking steps to adopt a zero trust architecture. However, according to some IT officials from these agencies, challenges continue to arise as they continue to implement their zero trust architecture model. […]

Today every Federal agency is working to implement zero trust. Each will begin in a unique place that is dictated by its current cybersecurity posture, cybersecurity investments, and agency missions. Still, many questions must be answered as agencies plot their zero-trust journey. Which pillar in the Zero Trust Maturity Model is most urgent? Which data is more vulnerable to attacks? How do you find and classify the most sensitive information? […]

While the zero trust security model has been widely recognized as an effective approach to preventing and mitigating data breaches, an official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said this week there are several misconceptions Federal agencies have which make them skeptical about adopting the framework. […]

The Biden administration is asking for $300 million of additional money for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) in Fiscal Year 2023 – an amount that would backfill most of the $320 million that the fund has awarded to Federal agencies since it received its $1 billion infusion in the American Rescue Plan Act last year. […]

Federal agencies are emerging from a tough season of security vulnerabilities – SolarWinds and Log4j among them – knowing that bad actors are changing their game plans. At the same time, agencies are improving their cyber playbooks with zero trust guidance from the White House, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and others. […]