Page 17 - FCW, July 2020

CLOUD SECURITY
BY THE NUMBERS
$ 7. 1 B
Amount federal cloud spending is projected to reach in 2020
$9.1B
Amount federal cloud spending could reach in 2024
45%
Agencies that use private clouds
17 of 22
Number of action items that have been completed under the Cloud Smart strategy
Sources: Bloomberg Government, CIO Council, Deltek, FCW
to evolve so that agencies are equipped with the monitoring capabilities they need to understand their cyber risk in the cloud.”
Fortuitously, the government released draft guidance on an updated Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative near the end
of 2019. TIC began more than a decade
ago as a way to limit the number of agency connections to the internet, which made sense at the time. But networks and security have evolved in the intervening years, so TIC 3.0 includes cloud as an official use case, making it easier for agencies to adopt the technology.
In response to the coronavirus lockdown, CISA specifically references TIC 3.0 in the telework guidance released on April 1. The goal is to provide “security capabilities for remote federal employees securely connecting to private agency networks and cloud environments.”
Cloud security is top of mind for state and local government leaders, too. The 2020 list of the top 10 priorities for members of the National Association of State CIOs includes
cybersecurity and risk management at the top and cloud in third, just behind digital government — in terms of strategy, policy and management. However, when it comes to technologies, applications and tools, the No. 1 priority is cloud solutions (specifically software as a service).
The need for a more modern approach to IT systems was apparent this spring when several states — including Connecticut, Kansas and New Jersey — put out a call for Cobol programmers to help with systems running on decades-old mainframes that teleworkers couldn’t access.
The lasting impact of the pandemic
Cloud technology has a crucial role to play
in agencies’ ability to modernize IT systems and take advantage of the latest technological innovations. Because of its importance, cloud adoption must keep pace with security efforts. For example, despite the fact that the Office of Management and Budget requires agencies to use FedRAMP to authorize the use of cloud services, 15 of 24 agencies recently
surveyed by the Government Accountability Office said they did not always use FedRAMP. Specifically, agencies reported using 247 cloud services that had not been certified. GAO recommended that OMB enhance its oversight and that the General Services Administration, which manages FedRAMP, improve its guidance and monitoring.
Still, more than half (58%) of respondents to a recent survey of FCW readers said the security of cloud-based technology is a top priority, and 83% said their agencies have strategies for managing compliance with various security standards in the cloud.
The response to the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that agencies can continue to function when most employees are teleworking, and in many ways, cloud-based technology has enhanced teamwork and productivity. Some of those changes may be here to stay. Fortunately, security approaches are evolving to better fit today’s networking realities, and the stage is set to ensure that those changes aren’t just functional but are also secure.
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