From: Diplomatic Courrier
Cybersecurity; the top of every corporation, organization, and in fact, nation’s agenda, for arguably the majority of the 21st century. The U.S. government is working to keep up with the private sector and remain ahead of the countless impeding cyber-attacks. But where specifically do federal agencies fall short in cybersecurity, and what can they do about it? In order to assess the current state, progress, and future of U.S. government cybersecurity, GovLoop, an organization based in Washington with the goal of connecting and improving government, and Akamai, a leader in Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, partnered to conduct a review of federal cybersecurity. In this review, over 350 federal employees were surveyed; the survey focused on reviewing cybersecurity in government in 2016 and predicting key challenges for 2017. The results of the survey point to a future where constant innovation, assessment, and research is necessary to protect the infrastructure of our nation.
In 2015, federal departments reported 77,183 cybersecurity attacks, a 10% increase from 2014, and that number is predicted to rise. Agencies are split when it comes to the level of preparedness they feel; according to the survey, 47% of the government agencies that experienced the aforementioned attacks felt capable of responding. Possibly, a certain level of preparedness resulted from the Obama administration’s FY 2014-2015 Cybersecurity Cross Agency Priority (CAP) Goal Report, which monitored and measured agency improvements in specific high-priority areas, including strong authentication. The CAP report inspired success in certain areas; the percentage of civilian users with personal identity verification (PIV) cards about doubled and over half of the survey respondents say that their own security procedures were extended to include mobile protection.
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