Cyber Defense eMagazine August Edition for 2021

The Dangers of a Distributed Workforce
In today’s majority distributed workforce, where many endpoints are now used beyond the traditional
local access network (LAN) perimeter, adversaries have extra opportunities to infiltrate an endpoint
device that has traveled outside the safety of the office environment.
To add to this increased vulnerability, bad actors only have to infiltrate a single endpoint once. From
there, they can tag along through the perimeter on that same endpoint via a VPN and move across the
entire network. Due to the increase in hybrid and remote work, distributed endpoints have made it much
easier for adversaries to accomplish their goals – work that was once far more labor intensive, time
consuming, and risky.
The traditional approach to cybersecurity, that primarily focuses on protecting the LAN perimeter, no
longer fits the bill. We need a new approach, one that is utilized effectively, keeps up with workforce
changes, and protects agency data.
A majority of Federal cybersecurity managers agree – 99% said they are working to rationalize and merge
their agency’s security tools.
Where to Start
To begin the tool rationalization process, federal IT teams can first record and evaluate those currently
employed across the enterprise. This helps the team better take stock and see which tools are being
used (and for what tasks), and which are not used as much, if at all. After that assessment is completed,
IT teams can decide which tools to keep, replace, retire, or merge – activities which often require financial
resources, technical expertise, strategic investment, and time.
However, there is not just one way to conduct a tools rationalization process. Each agency will have to
develop its own strategy based on mission, business, and security needs, but the costs – often the biggest
hurdle to change – do not have to be prohibitive.
With funding from the Modernizing Government Technology Act, Technology Modernization Fund, and
American Rescue Plan to help aid agencies as they complete this needed transformation, they can
expect a cascade of positive side effects. A majority of federal cybersecurity managers agreed that
rationalizing and consolidating their agency tools creates a positive domino effect, delivering improved
utilization, increased interoperability, reduced cost, and improved functionality/user convenience.
This approach also helps Department of Defense agencies and contractors, in particular, improve their
cyber maturity level – and their CMMC level status.
Big picture: we can only effectively reduce risk if we stop carrying legacy problems forward. Agencies
need a new approach to grow resilient to cyber security disruptions, maintain compliance with regulations,
and ensure they are receiving the best return-on-investment.
Of course, every agency will have unique needs and must understand that there is no cyber silver bullet
to strengthen systems. But agency IT teams should adopt a security tool customized for a borderless
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