Zero Trust No Longer a Nice-to-Have: Why Federal Agencies Must Adopt
In the wake of high-profile cyber attacks and growing regulatory pressure, federal agencies are being forced to rethink their approach to network security. The days of permissive network architectures, where anyone within the network is trusted by default, are rapidly coming to an end. Enter Zero Trust architecture, a security model that treats all users and devices as untrusted by default, and verifies their identity and permissions at every step. In this article, we’ll explore why Zero Trust is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity for federal agencies.
Let’s start with the numbers. According to a recent report by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), federal agencies experienced over 6,000 cyber incidents in 2020 alone. These incidents included data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other types of cyber threats. The same report noted that the majority of these incidents could have been prevented with better security controls and practices.
