Cyber Defense eMagazine August Edition for 2021

To Reduce Risk, Feds Need To Reevaluate Their Cyber
Toolset
By Matt Marsden, Vice President, Technical Account Management, Federal at Tanium
From SolarWinds, to JBS Meatpacking, to Colonial Pipeline and more – successful cyber breaches in
2021 have left the federal government more wary of their cybersecurity tools and practices than ever
before.
In addition to the executive order aimed at strengthening the nation’s cybersecurity, Kathleen Hicks,
Deputy Defense Secretary, recently ordered and completed a review of the Pentagon’s Cybersecurity
Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. This effort signals a growing effort to reduce the exposure
of federal and critical infrastructure systems to hacks.
To “reduce risk against a specific set of cyber threats,” per CMMC, federal agencies and contractors need
real-time data to make sound decisions. But, agencies often have more security tools than they actually
need, and only 31% of federal cybersecurity managers are confident with their tools’ ability to provide
data in real-time, according to new research.
To better protect federal networks, agency IT teams should reevaluate their basic security posture and
how they safeguard endpoints across the enterprise. Some of the top drivers for reducing risk,
respondents noted, include compliance governance and policy, tools rationalization/consolidation, end
user training, visibility across the enterprise, supply chain management, and real-time data.
Cyber Defense eMagazine – August 2021 Edition 111
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