HP Federal’s Tommy Gardner: Zero Trust an Imperative for Government Agencies

Tommy Gardner, chief technology officer of HP’s federal business, has said zero-trust initiatives have now become an imperative for government agencies as they work to protect their information technology systems, data and employees against cyber attacks.

Gardner wrote in a GCN opinion piece published Monday that multi-factor authentication is one of the critical technologies to implementing zero trust.

“Effective zero trust, however, requires three or more authentication factors,” he said. “To make that friendlier for users, some PCs and mobile devices are now optimized with client security management features built in to support MFA functions.”

He said agencies should build up resilience against breaches with endpoint device security and implement hardware-based isolated browsing that allows personal computers and other endpoint devices to trap malware in virtual containers.

Zero-trust initiatives call for a strong disaster recovery program and Gardner said agencies should invest in self-healing systems that allow organizations to automatically assess if computers and other devices have been compromised and shut down or isolate corrupt platforms. He noted that next-generation self-healing systems have demonstrated how artificial intelligence and machine learning can detect and prevent attacks before they occur.