Even though humans are fascinatingly smart, it’s important for us to be in the knowing about our shortcomings. This helps us big time when we are looking for ways through which can remedy the said weaknesses. Now, if we look through the history for a second, we’ll see that humans have actually put-together numerous takes on how they can close the gaps and widen their capabilities. Each take here, has, in fact, enjoyed a very unique impact. Their uniqueness, however, wouldn’t amount to much once technology ends up on the scene. We are talking about a creation that didn’t just fix some things here and there. Instead, it literally revolutionized how we approached everything, but then again, all that didn’t come without a price. You see, while technology worked towards solving our limitations, the creation also imposed its own flipside on us. The flipside we are referring to revolves around cybersecurity. As the world went more in on technology every day, we simultaneously exposed ourselves to a burgeoning threat of cyberattacks. This has been more evident in the last year than ever before. Fortunately, though, we are finally formulating a stringent response against such catastrophes, and a recent announcement from Biden administration does everything to back that up.
The White House has officially released a new cybersecurity strategy, which is constructed to reduce the risk of cyberattacks against government infrastructure. According to some relevant reports, the strategy is aimed at transitioning the government agencies into more of a “zero trust” framework, which will make sure that the users and devices are permitted to access network resources only when it’s necessary for the task at hand. Furthermore, it will also establish a system where users would need authentication on a case-by-case basis. Notably enough, in terms of authentication, the focus will be more on hardware-based verification tokens like access cards rather than push notifications or SMS.
“In the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, the Administration is taking decisive action to bolster the Federal Government’s cyber defenses,” said acting OMB director Shalanda Young in a statement. “This zero trust strategy is about ensuring the Federal Government leads by example, and it marks another key milestone in our efforts to repel attacks from those who would do the United States harm.”
Apart from that, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has also instructed the other agencies to maintain a complete record of devices authorized for official use. Talking about the implementation, the federal departments now have 60 days to submit an implementation plan to the OMB.
