Security News > 2021 > August > A Deeper Dive Into Zero-Trust and Biden's Cybersecurity Executive Order
The Executive Order can be seen as a response to the extent and effect of recent breaches, and the acceptance that Federal departments and agencies are failing to adequately secure their systems.
An August 2021 Senate Report titled Federal Cybersecurity: America's Data Still at Risk comments, "This report finds that these seven Federal agencies still have not met the basic cybersecurity standards necessary to protect America's sensitive data."
The Administration's conclusion is simple: "Incremental improvements will not give us the security we need; instead, the Federal Government needs to make bold changes and significant investments in order to defend the vital institutions that underpin the American way of life."
"Awareness drives resources. If it is important enough for the government to pay that much attention to it, then it is probably important enough for the private sector to do the same. So, the board is now paying attention to prioritizing cybersecurity strategies within the enterprise because it is a Federal mandate to do the same within the government."
The cybersecurity experts at the DOD, NSA, and DHS - who generally guide the opinion of the government - have clearly settled on moving to the cloud and implementing a zero-trust architecture as being the two most immediate and practical methods to improve the nation's cybersecurity posture.
The EO is a plan to develop an integrated reference architecture that Federal departments and agencies must adopt, and under-resourced private companies should adopt, to successfully develop and implement a zero-trust approach to cybersecurity.