Everyone knows that federal government agencies are prime targets for cyber attackers.  From weapons systems plans to the full identity records of millions of federal employees, there are a myriad of reasons why federal agencies are under attack from foreign governments and independent operatives.   But agencies are also struggling with attacks triggered by insiders – both untrained workers inadvertently exposing data to risk as well as malicious insiders.

In addition to requiring an overall cybersecurity strategy to protect assets and information, each of these sources of potential attack requires unique strategies and solutions.  Despite an acute awareness of the need for sophisticated cyber security policies, most agencies still struggle to execute on them.  So what’s standing in the way?

Omar Rafik, Senior Federal Systems Engineer at SolarWinds, and Laurie Morrow, Director of Research at Market Connections, recently sat down to talk about the biggest barriers that are standing in the way of federal CIOs and robust cybersecurity.  Their wide ranging conversation explored how the right tools and technologies can provide visibility into infrastructure security and help manage vulnerabilities against the full spectrum of threats.  But their consensus by the end of the conversation was that the implementation of specific tools – including identity authentication and security information and event management (SIEM) software – will help agency IT leaders combat these threats and overcome the obstacles to robust cybersecurity.

Are you interested in hearing more of this conversation?  You can listen to a recording of Omar and Laurie’s exchange here…