US federal agencies closing cybersecurity gaps

All US federal government agencies now have the capability to check outbound communication traffic in order to detect potential unauthorised exfiltration, according to US federal CISO Camilo Sandoval.

In an update to mark the end of America’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Sandoval said federal agencies have made substantial progress in how they protect the public’s data in the past year.

Agencies have been working to close the gap on priority Trump Administration cybersecurity targets including the adoption of a coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD) approach.

As part of these efforts, the percentage of agencies with the ability to remotely wipe contents from stolen or lost mobile devices and use central and dynamic controlled monitoring for these devices has grown to 47%.

Another notable statistic is the 40% increase in cloud email usage, Sandoval said.

“This year has brought cybersecurity to the forefront of everyone’s mind. As a community, we had to come together and found ourselves thrust into an environment facing challenges which not only affected our agencies, but our community as a whole,” Sandoval said.

“I am happy to report that agencies have made substantial progress in how they protect the public’s data... We continue to find opportunities for improving how agencies communicate about reported vulnerabilities to each other and to those security researchers making the effort to inform us about risks to our information systems.”

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