Basic Cyber Hygiene and Zero Trust Principles

The federal government places a lot of emphasis on basic cyber hygiene practices that employees should use, such as using unique passwords for every application and changing them regularly, guarding against clicking on suspect links buried in emails, and backing up data frequently. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) offers a wide range of cyber hygiene services to help agencies improve their cybersecurity postures through assessments and trainings.

The mandate to implement a zero trust architecture, as laid out in the May 2021 Executive Order, does not mean that employees are free to ignore cyber hygiene. While putting zero trust in place is likely to change the future of work – by making it safer for users to work from home, for instance – it could mean that unsecured, unsafe remote devices are cut off from government networks. This, in turn, would impact both the IT workforce, which will need to sort everything out, and day-to-day operations of the agencies.

Join us as thought leaders from government and industry discuss the connection between cyber hygiene and the pursuit of zero trust for federal systems.