Page 29 - FCW, Nov/Dec 2017

NETWORK MODERNIZATION IDENTITY-DRIVEN SECURITY
Identity-Driven Security
Today’s data center has no real perimeters—and that calls for a new approach to cybersecurity.
In the past past few years, federal agencies have made great strides in fighting cyberattacks, in large part due to efforts such as the cybersecurity sprint of 2015. As a result of that initiative, agencies have improved their general cybersecurity hygiene, and more of
them are now enforcing multifactor authentication, designating a security operations center, tightening policies and procedures for privileged users, and addressing critical vulnerabilities.
Yet much like corporate America, federal agencies are struggling against continually inventive hackers and the changing nature of their own IT ecosystems. Mobility, for example, is ubiquitous throughout government, and it is creating a host
of security issues. How can agencies protect data and the devices that access it when data can live anywhere, on any device, beyond the perimeter of the data center?
It is also common for agencies to store and access data, applications, and entire platforms in multiple clouds, often supplied by multiple providers. That approach creates another set of security challenges. In short, agencies must be able to protect their data no matter where it lives, and they must be able to identify anomalies and attacks on applications, systems, users, and data no matter where they are.
Those challenges call for a new approach to cybersecurity that focuses on detection and the continual monitoring of all critical endpoints, including the cloud, mobile devices, on-premises servers, and Internet-of-Things sensors as well as all installed security solutions. That is by far the best way to protect identities, applications, data, devices, and infrastructure.
Getting to that point requires more than technology, however, and it starts with looking at the problem
in a new way. Today’s data center essentially has no perimeters, and it’s crucial for agencies to recognize that fact and adjust their approach accordingly.
In other words, conventional methods of protecting data and infrastructure don’t work anymore because users routinely move beyond the data center’s traditional perimeter in the course of their business activities. Therefore, effective detection and protection now must center around identity.
“We used to think of a data center as the thing to protect, but now it’s the data that has to be protected,”
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