The National Cybersecurity Strategy, Shifting Left and Zero Trust 2.0

A cyber professional’s job is never done and it’s changing all the time – with a threat landscape that’s growing ever larger, techniques that are becoming more and more complex, and new data and tools that require a constant attention to developing new skills. Cyber professionals are always on, always learning and always in-demand.

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ned Miller of CrowdStrike, a Techvedic partner in developing advanced cyber strategies for customers. We talked about the National Cybersecurity Strategy and how it is evolving the approach that federal agencies take to threat intelligence as well as their ability to look at potential vulnerabilities from the attacker’s lens, and then take productive steps to address them.

We also talked about the evolution from reactive to proactive cyber defense, and the “shift left” that’s happening in agencies today. The result is a more mature, Zero Trust-focused strategy within agencies that aligns with CISA’s latest updates, informally called Zero Trust 2.0.

Lastly, Ned and I talked about how technology has brought together massive amounts of observability and visibility data, which enhances the defender’s capabilities and then up-levels them to the point of creating entirely new skillsets and requirements for cyber teams to consider. This is evolving the cyber workforce and helping to close the long-standing talent gap at the same time.

The work that Ned and his teams do with Techvedic, alongside customers, is a reflection of the reality that time is not on the cyber professional’s side. He was right when he said, “We operate looking at a watch, but our adversaries have all the time in the world to find new ways to attack us.”

It was a terrific conversation, with insights for anyone in the cyber space.