TD Synnex Public Sector’s Chief Cybersecurity Technologist, Don Maclean sat down with Mark Guntrip, Senior Director of Security Strategy at Menlo Security, to discuss one of the latest emergent security threats.

Government organizations have a bad rap for being inefficient. But with outdated technology and limited spending, they aren’t exactly set up for success. And the expectations from stakeholders are high, with funding provided primarily by taxpayer dollars.

As government agencies and organizations look to modernize their technology stacks to keep up with changes in the workforce, aging solutions, and closing contracts, they’ll all set out with a similar process: submit an RFP, review submissions, and choose a vendor. Seems simple enough.

But what government CIOs often don’t realize is that requiring proven, specific use cases may be limiting what their new (and likely expensive) technology investment can do for their organization. Here’s what I mean.

The rise in a remote workforce and use of cloud-enabled business applications equates to the browser essentially becoming our office, providing access to all necessary tools, data, and communications. Threat actors understand this paradigm shift and are now utilizing Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats (HEAT) to initiate ransomware, extortion ware, and other endpoint intrusions.

HEAT attacks are the next generation of cyber threats.

This is the second post in the Threat-Based Methodology series. The first post introduced Threat-Based Methodology and the analysis conducted by the FedRAMP PMO and NIST. That post concluded with a list of the top seven controls based on their Protection Value. This post will explore CM-6 in greater depth and explain how Devo supports the ability to meet this control.

This three-part blog series will explore threat-based methodology and how it benefits every company with a network. The series leverages the analysis presented by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Program Management Office (PMO) in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

You can spend hours scrolling down the rabbit hole of government IT horror stories, which makes the recent launch of the federal website for ordering free COVID tests that much more remarkable. The website worked, and it was surprisingly easy to use. But that success belies decades of underinvestment in digital transformation that has stifled public sector innovation and hardened the government's low-tech image. For example:

The heightened threat of retaliatory cyberattacks by Russia against critical U.S. IT infrastructure is prompting federal investments in cybersecurity to strengthen its cyber defense posture. The ongoing conflict in the region and the increased targeting of critical infrastructure assets will cause federal agencies to look for ways to strengthen their cybersecurity posture and redefine requirements that address cyber breaches that may occur during the coming months and years as well as drive investments into Zero Trust related tools and threat intelligence.

Over the last few years, the federal government has begun to embrace a zero trust approach as the new cybersecurity standard for agencies. Utilizing the latest solutions and best practices, the hope is to bolster federal cybersecurity and create a robust and resilient IT infrastructure that can protect and secure networks from attacks and breaches.

In this Q&A discussion, the former Chief of People and Culture shares her insights into employee and customer experience in government, along with tips to improve both areas.