LATEST INTELLIGENCE
PRESENTED BY
RETHINKING FEDERAL CYBER
SECURITY FOR THE CLOUD
GENERATION
W
elcome to the Cloud Generation. Data
security was once a simple concept,
especially for federal agencies. Employees
used one device to access data through a single
network. The goal for technology providers was
to secure this infrastructure at all costs. If the
infrastructure remained secure, so did the data.
Download whitepaper here
20
INTELLIGENTCIO
Those days are long gone in government. Now
if an employee wants to share a large file with
a co-worker, and email can’t handle it, the
employee looks for other options such as putting
it in their personal Dropbox account. A seasoned
federal employee might think better about doing
something like this since, more than likely, Dropbox
is not an authorised agency application. But
younger employees, who grew up using the cloud
– the Cloud Generation – see it as a way of being
more productive.
While the agency itself may not sanction cloud
capabilities, or may approve just a small amount,
employees are using unauthorised cloud services at
will, resulting in a growing issue known as Shadow IT.
The employee is not trying to be malicious – instead,
just doing their job effectively – but it requires federal
technology leaders to rethink their security strategies.
It is no longer about technology leaders choosing
cloud computing; the cloud has already chosen them.
So, what are agencies to do? With employees forcing
them toward the cloud, federal agencies need
solutions to stay protected. With recent advances
in integrated cloud security solutions, cloud security
no longer has to be about fitting together different
pieces of the security puzzle. Instead, agencies can
take advantage of security technologies built to
protect the Cloud Generation, which enable users to
be productive while the information is protected. n
www.intelligentcio.com