Page 129 - Cyber Defense eMagazine April 2023

New Cyber Threats Calls for New

Approaches

By Mark Sincevich, Federal Director of Illumio

Data compromises hit record numbers in 2021 with 1,826 occurrences reported, up 23 percent from
2017. In the last two years alone, 66 percent of IT managers experienced at least one supply chain attack
and 76 percent experienced at least one ransomware attack. As cyber incidents become more advanced,
agencies or commands must change their approach, or they’ll continue to see the same results. They
need to move beyond a traditional “prevention and detection” mindset and toward a Zero Trust
Architecture.
For years, IT leaders across federal agencies have focused on preventing breaches and keeping
cyberattacks from penetrating the network. But, as digital transformation continues to expand the modern
attack surface and the nature and frequency of attacks evolve, that mindset must shift from stopping all
attacks to also minimizing the impact of an attack and finally to assume breach. The reality is attacks are
inevitable – and every agency is a target.

At a high level, a Zero Trust architecture moves beyond traditional security measures (i.e., perimeter-
based security) and requires all users, whether inside or outside the organization’s network, to be
authorized before being granted access to specific applications or data. Predicated on three core

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