Jane Edwards
A General Dynamics Information Technology study has found that 63 percent of officials from federal civilian and defense agencies said their organizations are on schedule to meet the zero trust security requirements by the end of fiscal year 2024 under the cybersecurity executive order signed in 2021.
GDIT said it commissioned government research firm Market Connections to survey 300 federal civilian and defense agency leaders in February to determine their progress in meeting the Office of Management and Budget’s zero trust goals and EO requirements and found that 92 percent said they are confident in their agencies’ cyber defense capabilities.
The Agency Guide to Zero Trust Maturity study also showed that 76 percent of respondents said their organizations have a formal zero trust strategy in place and that at least 50 percent said their agencies are actively implementing those strategies.
However, the respondents cited some of the challenges to zero trust architecture implementation and these are rebuilding or replacing legacy infrastructure, identifying the technologies they need and lacking sufficient IT staff expertise.
When asked about their agencies’ investment priorities over the next year, at least 90 percent of federal officials mentioned device protection and cloud security. At least half of the respondents cited microsegmentation as their investment priority, while 47 percent pointed to artificial intelligence as their priority to facilitate protection of granular data.
“This zero trust report shows that federal agencies are making great progress to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses,” said Matthew McFadden, vice president of cyber at GDIT.
“Zero trust principles need to be implemented throughout the organization and must be embraced by business and IT stakeholders to establish a successful strategy that drives cyber resiliency and supports the organization’s mission,” McFadden added.
