Amid rising incidents of cyberattacks and espionage, governments worldwide are issuing cybersecurity mandates to bolster defenses and ensure regulatory compliance. With a workforce comprising employees, consultants, and contractors, government agencies are required to adopt stringent internal information security standards. These measures, alongside federal regulations, are essential to protect sensitive data such as classified records, trade secrets, patents, copyrights, and intellectual property.
Rockwell Collins Customer Story
Learn how Rockwell Collins automates data access in compliance with export laws, safeguarding intellectual property for seamless global collaboration
NextLabs’ Solution for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program
Discover more about CMMC requirements and how NextLabs can help streamline CMMC compliance
SAP - Share Data Securely Across Your Entire Extended Enterprise
Gain precise insights into sensitive information within documents to mitigate risks across your enterprise
Higher Levels of Security Requirements
Primarily handling classified data, government agencies face uniquely complex access control and data sharing requirements that surpass those typically encountered by private companies. They must also manage Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), which requires strict adherence to the federal mandates. Agencies often discover that standard commercial technology solutions are not built to address the security demands of their data.Â
Data Sharing Requirements
In their daily operations, agencies must share sensitive data with each other, and with the commercial sector. These factors create a highly demanding security landscape, where safeguarding vast amounts of restricted data is paramount for national security and public trust. To regulate the sharing of government data, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) was established – failure to adhere to its standards can result in loss of contracts and business opportunities.Â
Espionage and National Security Threats
Governments need to be vigilant against complex cyberattacks orchestrated by foreign actors. This includes monitoring for potential internal threats where employees or contractors might be recruited to exfiltrate confidential data. Leakage of such data can gravely compromise national security potentially endangering lives and national stability. Agencies must ensure that even if a system is compromised, the data remains inaccessible to unauthorized individuals.Â
Legacy Technology
Government agencies frequently encounter obstacles in adopting new technologies, primarily stemming from their dependence on custom-built integrations. They often perceive their complex security needs as incompatible with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions, further complicating IT migration and transformation efforts. The slow pace of adoption results in costly IT infrastructure overburdened with high volumes of sensitive legacy data, while lacking interoperability for effective data sharing.Â
Expedite Modernization with Zero Trust Architecture
To overcome these challenges, government agencies need to expedite their adoption of security technology and embrace standardized Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) solutions to meet compliance demands. Implementing standards-based technology reduces complexity, facilitates the integration of commercial technologies for safeguarding classified data, and enhances interoperability for secure collaboration.Â
Zero Trust Policy Engine
According to NIST, employing a policy engine that applies zero trust principles to implement an attribute-based access control (ABAC) model offers a stronger and more scalable approach to access management. This method addresses complex access control and data sharing requirements by enabling the evaluation of additional information (attributes) to inform authorization decisions.Â
Data-Centric Security Controls
Centrally managed policies are enforced to enable data-centric controls such as ABAC and DRM. ABAC enables granular access control based on attributes such as security clearance, department, device type and location. DRM enables agencies to encrypt sensitive documents, preventing unauthorized copying or distribution even if the data is intercepted by third parties. Â
Automate and Prevent
Automating data classification enhances efficiency in managing vast amounts of legacy data and helps in actively preventing breaches. By swiftly identifying sensitive information, agencies can proactively implement policies in accordance with Zero Trust protocols and safeguard data from exposure. Â
Real-time Logging and Monitoring
By centrally logging all data access activity, agencies can be alerted to patterns that suggest unauthorized data exfiltration, whether it is by foreign actors or internal threats. This proactive approach enables the early identification of suspicious behaviors, helping to minimize the risk of data leakage.
NextLabs Solution
CloudAz Dynamic Authorization Policy Engine
Built on ZTA, CloudAz introduces a patented, dynamic authorization policy engine that utilizes real-time contextual information to make swift authorization decisions. Moreover, the policy engine automatically accounts for changes in user status or resource attributes, such as departmental transfers, without requiring manual intervention. This ensures that government agencies can dynamically adapt to complex access requirements.Â
CloudAz Dynamic Authorization Policy Engine
Built on ZTA, CloudAz introduces a patented, dynamic authorization policy engine that utilizes real-time contextual information to make swift authorization decisions. Moreover, the policy engine automatically accounts for changes in user status or resource attributes, such as departmental transfers, without requiring manual intervention. This ensures that government agencies can dynamically adapt to complex access requirements.Â
CloudAz Smart Classifier
CloudAz employs NextLabs‘ Smart Classifier to automatically classify, organize, and safeguard documents in repositories, addressing the challenge of managing large volumes of sensitive data in government agencies. Smart Classifier can efficiently categorize files in shared folders based on content or metadata, even at scale. By applying policies aligned with data classification, sensitive information receives appropriate controls, enabling fine-grained access management.Â
Application Enforcer
Application Enforcer employs Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) to uphold the principle of least privilege, guaranteeing that only authorized entities within government agencies can access sensitive data. Furthermore, it identifies and gathers pertinent data to enable centralized correlation and detection of anomalous activities, effectively safeguarding against insider threats to vital information within governmental systems.Â
SkyDRM Digital Rights Management
SkyDRM enables enables government agencies to foster seamless collaboration while maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of shared information, be it with other agencies or partneres in the commercial sector. It persistently protects files across the information cycle and applies rights protection automatically to selected files based on pre-established policies. Â
SkyDRM Digital Rights Management
SkyDRM enables enables government agencies to foster seamless collaboration while maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of shared information, be it with other agencies or partneres in the commercial sector. It persistently protects files across the information cycle and applies rights protection automatically to selected files based on pre-established policies. Â
