Cisco’s Diane Gongaware: Agencies Should Implement ‘Proactive’ Cybersecurity Approach

Diane Gongaware, vice president of U.S. public sector services at Cisco, has said agencies should adopt a “proactive” approach to cybersecurity in order to facilitate threat detection and response as well as mitigate the impacts of cyber attacks.

Gongaware wrote in a FedTech article published Tuesday that agencies should conduct risk assessments to identify the types of information that are of interest to threat actors and examine how data is used and shared on agency networks.

“Knowing how and by whom the information is being used can also help an agency identify potential vulnerabilities,” she noted.

She called on agencies to protect valued data from cyber hackers through the use of risks assessments; prevention of unauthorized access; updates to information technology systems; and implementation of traffic and device segmentation best practices.

Agencies should also ensure digital and physical security, inform employees and vendors on security policies and reduce “shadow IT,” she added.

Gongaware urged agencies to establish a cyber strategy that seeks to optimize IT security resources and advance information security risk awareness among agency stakeholders.