Pentagon to launch 'zero trust' cybersecurity agency to combat hack attack surge

The Pentagon is set to open a new agency to implement a new "zero trust" cybersecurity approach next month as hacking attacks have surged in the United States, a report says.

"Zero trust" assumes that there is no trust between networks, devices, or users, and therefore necessitates constant verification of data accessing users. The approach seeks to block intruders from typically traveling freely within a network once they've gained access.

The measure is reported to be part of a push to complete zero trust deployment in the wake of last year's SolarWinds hacker attack which breached federal systems.

The hack of information technology company SolarWinds gave access to thousands of companies and government offices that used its products.

"We’ve redoubled our efforts, we’ve fought for dollars internally to get after this problem faster," Pentagon Chief Information Security Officer David McKeown is quoted as saying by C4ISRNET.

"We’re standing up a portfolio management office that will ... rationalize all network environments out there, prioritize and set each one of them on a path of zero trust over the coming five, six, seven years."

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McKeown also aid noted that while the Department of Defense has embraced several components that are supposed to operate together to create a "zero trust" environment, it is not being prescriptive about which products its enclaves use as long as they work together.

The remarks came nearly six months after the Biden administration issued an order to boost cybersecurity at government organizations in the aftermath of the SolarWinds hack.

McKeown said "zero trust" highlighted the lengths to which intruders will go and the need for improved protection. He noted that despite the fact that SolarWinds was a widely trusted piece of software, it began "beaconing out" from within networks.

The Pentagon Chief Information Security Officer also said that the department believes that "zero trust is the only solution out there right now that gives us a fighting chance on detecting these folks that may have a foothold on our network or this anomalous software that we’ve allowed in."

US media reported last month that the hackers behind the SolarWinds intrusion attempted to access US government networks, as well as European government networks.

In  January, US intelligence agencies claimed Moscow was likely behind the massive cyberattack on US tech companies and government agencies in December 2020, a charge Russia has vehemently denied.
 

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