Page 125 - Cyber Defense eMagazine for July 2020

connectivity? To ensure comprehensive, secure access, agencies may initially need to take a “tiered”
connectivity approach.

3. How can employees connect? Some employees may have had government-issued laptops and
devices prior to the crisis, but do all employees now need laptops? Prioritize needs. Then, evaluate
risks and develop BYOD policies and education.

4. Can we stagger work hours? It may not be possible to accommodate an almost entirely remote
workforce within the typical 9-5 hours. Some agencies can adjust work hours, moving mission critical
work to the “graveyard-shift” hours to ensure seamless connectivity to perform critical duties.

5. How do we improve performance/connection speed? As the network perimeter expands, many
agencies are moving to the cloud through a secure access service edge (SASE) model. Direct access
via internet breakouts provides fast, secure access for all users.

What’s Next? Evaluating and Evolving Telework Health for the Long Haul

Once mission critical teams are operational in remote environments and the organization has moved past
that initial crisis response – the next step is to take the lessons learned and evaluate how to continue
down the modernization path. What will drive simplicity, reduce costs, and create scalability for any future
COOP scenarios?

This is not a one-and-done process but should be built into ongoing IT operations and planning.

Here are six design architecture questions to help frame telework health – with the goal of driving digital
transformation and improve security, access, and support for remote employees:

1. Do we provide a seamless user experience with direct access to internal and external
applications?

Agencies need to adjust security from traditional, legacy appliance-based tools, such as VPNs, to a
solution that secures traffic no matter where the user or target application resides. Zero trust connections
allow users to directly access applications in any location. This eliminates the hair-pinning caused by
backhauling traffic through a VPN, reduces traffic, and reduces latency – ultimately, improving the user
experience. Zero trust also never puts users on the network, reducing the attack surface.

2. Do we have context-aware access?

Users should only be given access to resources and applications necessary for their job functions.
Agencies should develop clear access policies and rules enforced through a zero trust security model,
where only authorized users will be granted access to authorized applications. This can further limit east-
west traffic on the network so that users will not reach applications they were not intended to reach.
Context-aware access also delivers benefits beyond work-from-home security, such as mergers and
acquisitions, cloud migration, third-party access, and more. Zero trust network access solutions address
all of these scenarios with simple policies that are user-centric, rather than network-centric.

Cyber Defense eMagazine –July 2020 Edition 125
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