The Cyber Defense eMagazine November Edition for 2023

What the Government Can Learn from the
Private Sector in Pursuit of Zero Trust
By Kevin Kirkwood, Deputy CISO, LogRhythm
It has now been over two years since President Biden issued the Executive Order on Improving the
Nation’s Cybersecurity, outlining one of the administration's first real advancements in the pursuit of Zero
Trust Architecture. The announcement signified a major milestone in modernizing U.S. government
security defenses and raising awareness for all federal, state and local agencies to make security a top
priority.
Now just one year away from the White House’s Zero Trust implementation target of September 2024,
several U.S. government agencies recently fell victim to a Russian cyberattack, signaling that there is still
more ground to be covered in the government-wide pursuit of Zero Trust. The hacking spree, which has
impacted schools, hospitals and local government institutions, in addition to several federal agencies,
has placed extra scrutiny on the government’s security measures – or lack thereof.
In mid-April of 2023, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released the second
version of its Zero Trust Maturity Model that serves as the guidebook for federal agencies on the path to
Zero Trust. According to a report from the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee,
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