The US military is going all-in on zero-trust

By James On Nov 24, 2022

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has released an official document detailing how it plans to integrate Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) across all of its departments, from technology to cybersecurity and human resources.

The “DoD Zero Trust Strategyoutlines how the entire DoD and all its departments must have the Zero Trust framework firmly in place by 2027.

“This shift in philosophy is a significant change in legacy authentication and security mechanisms,” the paper said. “It also represents a major cultural change that stakeholders across the entire DoD ZT ecosystem, including the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), will need to embrace and execute from FY2023 through FY2027 and into the future.”

Increasing attacks

Zero Trust is a relatively new concept in cybersecurity, which states that every person, device or application on a network must be authenticated and authenticated. Nothing is trusted by default.

To put things in a broader context, the DoD said the U.S. government and its departments are increasingly affected by cyberattacks, which have become more devastating in recent times. At the same time, the shift in the way people work (i.e. remote work) has made securing the perimeter even more difficult.

“Our adversaries are in our networks, exfiltrating our data and taking advantage of the ministry’s users,” the paper claims. “The rapid growth of these offensive threats highlights the need for the Department of Defense to adapt and significantly improve our deterrence strategies and cybersecurity implementations.”

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The project was kicked off some 18 months ago by US President Joe Biden after the administration issued an executive order to strengthen the government’s defenses.

In addition to the DoD, this also prompted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) to update its infrastructure resilience framework to guide state, local, and tribal entities as they continue to work on their cybersecurity efforts.

In addition, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) has asked the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to further develop its recommendations for improving security in software development.

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Through: The register