Jerry Petersen
True cyber resilience can bring various benefits to government agencies, including the neutralization of risks, the acceleration and optimization of one’s mission and the maximization of the effects of digital transformation efforts, according to Rick Driggers and Amanda Satterwhite of Accenture Federal Services.
Driggers, the organization’s cyber practice lead and a managing director, and Satterwhite, its managing director of cyber market growth and strategy, said in an article posted on LinkedIn that true cyber resilience involves “the ability to anticipate, prevent, withstand, and recover from all types of security incidents.”
In order for agencies to enjoy the benefits of cyber resilience, they must build cybersecurity into transformation initiatives, embed zero trust into processes and culture and promote buy-in from agency leadership.
Cyber resilience also requires the recognition that the responsibility for cybersecurity extends beyond the chief information security officer to the entire cyber workforce. Such a holistic outlook calls for the rotation of personnel across defense and offensive cyber teams in order for each side to gain a richer understanding of how the other works.
“Such knowledge and culture exchanges can also help foster more nuanced thinking about cyber risks as teams consider the impacts of modernization, migration, or emerging technology on mission and productivity,” the article said.
Cyber resilience also calls on agencies to move away from a “need to know” approach to an “access first” approach to data. Agency analysts must be given the ability to mine data for insights that can guide decisions regarding security, efficiency and mission delivery.
Improving data access involves agencies empowering their chief data officers and implementing strong identity and access management tools through the adoption of zero trust.
The article notes that the path to cyber resilience will vary. “But all agencies can benefit from a full-spectrum view of cyber risk that unleashes the full mission value of their modernization efforts.”
