Jane Edwards
George Kamis, chief technology officer of global governments and critical infrastructure at Forcepoint, said there are five steps federal agencies can implement to protect mission-critical data in the cloud against ransomware and other cybersecurity attacks and the first is adopting zero trust.
“Zero trust replaces implicit assumptions about who is trusted with explicit decisions made every time a user or system attempts to access data,” Kamis wrote in a Nextgov article published Thursday.
He discussed the concept of “least privilege” and use of multifactor authentication in zero trust.
Kamis said agencies should identify and segment their most sensitive information, use threat removal technologies to eliminate malware and other malicious code in documents and other files and employ cross-domain platforms, which he said serve as “zero-trust gateways between segmented networks.”
He also called on agencies to advance continuous monitoring using behavioral analytics to establish user risk scores.
“By establishing a baseline of normal behavior, you can instantly and automatically recognize anomalous activities that could indicate a threat,” he added.
ExecutiveBiz, sister site of GovCon Wire and part of the Executive Mosaic digital media umbrella, will host a virtual event about securing the supply chain on Oct. 26. Visit ExecutiveBiz.com to sign up for the “Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations” event.
