Joined At The Node

At the crossroads of identity management and secure information sharing lays cybersecurity.

In a perfect world, secure information sharing works best when knowledge moves rapidly, quickly and efficiently between trusted identities using fixed and/or mobile devices.

The idea is not to “lock down” information, but to “securely enable” collaboration among users who may not know the person they are sharing with, but know the person on the other end of the line has a trusted identity.

“So the vision is we get to a point where we’ve got secure, reliable and available systems,” explained Greg Schaffer, Assis­tant Secretary for CyberSecurity & Communications at DHS in a recent interview with On The Frontlines.

“The systems are designed that way from the start and they are executed in a way so that we know when we’ve got disruptions in real time and we are in a position to knock down the risk and address those issues when they occur.”

Secure The Data!

The perimeter is always going to get breached. There are always going to be “events”. This

is leading cyber experts to widen their focus from protecting not only the perimeter but to protecting the information itself. Further, the advent of the Cloud illuminates identity and access issues, because if data isn’t stored on local systems or devices, then trusted identity management and access management procedures are essential.

New technology solutions are being developed that allow the customer to wrap or encapsulate their data and control who can use it using tools like encryption management.

So that if an event happens, you are really limiting the damage the person can do; and even if they capture somebody’s identity, they can only get access to the information that individual person had access to.

Today the mandatory use of CAC cards is increasing; as we speak technologists are working on ways to bring software solu­tions to things like Blackberries and iPhones where you can actu­ally use them as your authenticator, to make it easier for the user.

That will be critical as more and more computing moves to mobile platforms. Analysts at Canalys report the Android plat­form alone has grown 886% over last year.

So, because your data can live on a smart phone just as well as it can live on an enterprise, you’ve got to make sure that the data itself is protected, the actual device is protected, and you have to be able to secure and manage those devices in a form and function that’s going to be effective.

Schaffer summed it up this way: “We must start reducing risk, transact our business on the Internet and increase the amount of trust that’s available there. But that’s going to take the focus and the energy and attention of not just the federal government and the players there, but the business community that is so reliant on the Internet as well, and all of the other players who really need to make this come together.” n