Last month, the White House issued a press release summarizing the Administration's cyber security efforts and accomplishments for 2015. This post will cover the highlights, and then we'll take a look at how OPSWAT's products for device and data security can contribute to these efforts.
The Administration has been taking major strides in cyber security, with the goals of improving the United States' defenses, enhancing response capabilities in the case of a cyber attack, and upgrading tools to better manage incidents.
Of all the changes that the Administration made, they can be categorized in four key areas:
- Support the private sector in improving cyber security and establish more collaboration between the public and private sectors
- Enhance federal cyber security
- Create new policies that will identify and defend against malicious cyber actors
- Engage with international parties
Support the private sector in improving cyber security
The Administration hosted the White House Summit on Cyber Security and Consumer Protection at Stanford University in February of this year, bringing a diverse array of individuals from consumer and privacy groups to educators and students. The goals at the summit were to share and increase adherence to security standards, share cyber-threat information, and encourage the adoption of more secure payment technologies.
Cyber Information Sharing and Collaboration Program (CISCP), the DHS built a trusted environment for sharing such cyber-threat information. Anyone who wants to tap into this information can go through the formalized Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.
Lastly, to better partner with technology companies, the Department of Defense (DoD) and DHS will open offices in Silicon Valley to focus on technology, innovation, and cyber security. The DoD's goal will focus on emerging technologies such to improve national security.
Enhance federal cyber security
The DHS has made major strides in beefing up its cyber security infrastructure. For example, the DHS has scanned over 40,000 systems for critical vulnerabilities, and it continues to scan more of its systems daily. As soon as vulnerabilities are identified, federal agencies work to patch them up.
Another initiative is the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, an initiative that aims to strengthen and fortify the networks of federal and other government agencies. Its goals are to enable network administrators to know the state of their networks at any point in time, and to identify, prioritize, and mitigate issues. While Phase 1 was primarily assessing hardware and software vulnerabilities in existing systems, the DHS is moving to Phase 2, which will better secure the users of government computers. This phase of CDM will provide Federal agencies the tools to monitor the activity of their users, identify whether users have the appropriate privileges, and detect unauthorized access to PII in near real-time.
The DHS is also deploying EINSTEIN 3A IPS across the Federal Civilian Government by the end of 2015. This intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS) system will be able to detect and block cyber security threats before they can impact Federal agencies.
Create new policies that will identify and defend against malicious cyber actors
The Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC) will serve as the national cyber threat intelligence center to "connect the dots" within government regarding malicious foreign cyber threats to the nation so that relevant departments and agencies are aware of these threats. More importantly, this information will be as close to real time as possible. The DoD's Cyber Strategy is to strengthen the United States' cyber security posture. This means that the U.S. is better to defend the nation from cyber-attacks of significant consequence. This can be from defending DoD networks, data, and systems, and providing cyber support to military operations and plans.
Engage with international parties
The Administration has reached out outside U.S. borders to gain support and cooperation with its initiatives abroad. Such countries as Brazil, the Gulf Cooperation Council states, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom are involved in these discussions. Additionally, the U.S. aims to improve the cyber defense capability around NATO.
How can OPSWAT help?
OPSWAT's expertise in securing devices and data workflow is already being implemented in some of the Administration's cyber security efforts. The OESIS SDK and Gears can assist in further enhancing federal cyber security, by aiding in endpoint posture assessment. Within the CDM program, the OESIS SDK is already at work, and Gears is being considered for endpoint posture assessment in future phases.
Using Metascan can further secure federal agencies' flow of data, including the files and that travel throughout the organization. This can be integrated as an additional component in the CTIIC or EINSTEIN 3A systems as an extra layer of information in identifying threats. Metascan is already used in certain government agencies, in energy facilities, and in organizations where securing data workflow is essential. Metascan Online, OPSWAT's online antivirus multi-scanning solution, includes a repository of hashes with threat information that could be complementary to the CISCP. Metascan Online can be integrated into the system as a means to offer additional threat details on previously seen files. Policy Patrol can be used to scan the attachments that federal employees send receive, and to set up secure file transfer, further strengthening data security at every point.
