ACT-IAC Cybersecurity Innovation Initiative Ideas

Leadership is on the right track when it asks why people and organizations don't do what they're supposed to do. Lessons observed (what we know) aren't converted enough into lessons learned (what we do) to prevent familiar security lapses.

This is true of ALL organizations, not just government, and always boils down to one thing: Behavior. Doing the right thing the right way, or not, is about behavior whether you're... more »

Walmart achieved a 92% reduction in security defects by creating a "Security Maven" role to drive security best practices into their software development teams that greatly outnumbered their security teams.

IT security in government is typically organized as a silo focused on protecting production systems. A government-wide security maven program would help tear down the existing" expertise" and "contractual" barriers... more »

Security/Privacy Protection Controls consistency is critical to mitigating organizational risk. Risk mitigation begins at the highest level of an organization. It is a combination of three key things—governance, accountability, and culture. Implementing an organizational governance process will bring myriad benefits, including lower costs, greater control, and overall increased efficiency and effectiveness. A benchmarked... more »

As enterprises strive to gain value by leveraging technology, the risk associated with digital business is increasing. Isolated approaches to information security, business continuity and incident response are a thing of the past; today, the urgency of providing continuously available services for customers and business partners in the digital economy requires enterprises to become resilient. A resilient enterprise protects... more »

Enhance content aware, rapid, and automated anomaly detection, both in network traffic/usage as well as user behavior. In-memory analytics powerful for this work. Be able to detect and respond in minutes not hours weeks and months.

Clarify a “hotline” reporting channel for people who suspect an issue, in agency or government-wide – if a user sees a potential problem, can check with team to for tech assistance on whether it’s real and what are next steps. Sort of a help desk for cyber reporting.

Endorse and expand TAXI/STYX so that data breach reporting is more robust and shared widely but in meaningful ways. Embrace operations similar to that used by North American Network Operators Group that shares incidents across most of the major networks in the US – include a “neighborhood cyber watch” program where companies and citizens can report issues to a shared resource that then shares with appropriate authorities.... more »