The public sector security puzzle: Piecing together a winning strategy.
Entities in the Public Sector face unique challenges when it comes to securing networks, data and communications. Governments, agencies and educational institutions are facing external pressures such as an increasing attack surface, complex compliance regulations like the Federal Zero Trust Mandate, and diverse stakeholders. They also face internal challenges such as underperforming legacy systems and funding constraints that may prevent necessary security upgrades. While balancing these priorities, entities must still stay focused on delivering reliable and efficient services to the public, often in critical and sensitive areas such as healthcare, education, homeland defense and the justice system.
Certainly, finding ways to secure operations and data can feel like an uphill battle, especially when considering that government is one of the most targeted sectors, experiencing 66% of the largest attacks. However, when agencies adopt a holistic and proactive approach to cybersecurity that aligns with mission objectives, they provide a safe and secure environment for citizens to interact with their services.
Developing priority‑driven security strategies
Federal Agencies
- While the specific mission objectives vary from agency to agency, the main priorities of serving the public interest and protecting citizens remain the same. With new technologies being introduced into everyday operations, many agencies are experiencing challenges with systems and application integration due to the inflexibility of legacy infrastructures. This lack of collaboration between distributed systems exposes vulnerabilities and compromises sensitive information. Adopting a more modern and flexible network infrastructure can help agencies securely integrate systems. This comprehensive approach to cybersecurity helps to increase agility in accomplishing mission objectives.
State and Local Governments
- Top of mind for State and Local governments is complying with federal regulations such as the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, which aims to strengthen security practices by understanding the current posture and areas for improvement based on continuous testing, evaluation and assessments. With limited staff to navigate these requirements and implement new frameworks, a cybersecurity partner that can evaluate assets, design and implement robust programs, and continuously monitor network traffic and threats allows governments to focus strategic energy on improving citizen experiences.
Educational Institutions
- With the need to take a digital-first approach to education in order to prioritize student access, education institutions are focusing on the digital channels and tools that improve student, staff and faculty experiences. However, data security and governance can be hard to manage when introducing new technologies and applications to large and widespread student populations. With varying levels of security knowledge, this introduces new vulnerabilities to schools and universities as students and employees are collaborating in a more distributed environment. Ultimately, institutions feel the benefits of more secure and adaptable tools in education, allowing more of the focus to be on creating the most productive learning environments for students.
- Healthcare Systems
- Healthcare systems are facing an increasing need to adopt a digital-first approach as they strive to deliver quality care. Patients, citizens, providers and partners have expectations for digital services and solutions, which introduce the security and compliance risks associated with storing and sharing confidential data in critical situations. With services like telehealth and patient portals streamlining patient-provider experiences, it’s important to have the supporting technology infrastructure. With online healthcare options, providers are taking a cloud-first approach to securing patient data in which both patients and providers benefit from more visibility and collaboration. With more secure tools, healthcare systems can efficiently navigate these data protection and compliance challenges while staying focused on improving health outcomes for populations.
The proactive approach to security
One common thread among all entities in the public sector is the challenge of balancing focus between network modernization and advanced security, but these go hand in hand. When security is at the forefront of everyday operations, systems and processes become more agile, freeing up resources to stay focused on critical objectives. Agencies can take these steps to get ahead of security threats:
- Identify which systems are critical and safeguard them.
- Assess the current environment for potential vulnerabilities that could emerge.
- Familiarize security teams with CISA directives and take steps towards compliance based on federal, state and local guidance.
- Develop incident response plans to be positioned for efficient mitigation in the face of security threats.
- Evaluate security operations to allot for continuous assessment of internal and external threats.
- Implement frameworks and tools that optimize the performance of security strategies.
- Empower employees to implement security measures in daily work with security education and training.
While the security landscape is constantly changing, these are the foundations of a comprehensive security strategy that enables agencies to fully capitalize on their technology investments.
How can Lumen help?
As a trusted partner to the government, Lumen can help you secure your mission-critical data, protecting citizens and staff. With one of the largest, most deeply peered backbones in the world, Lumen has unique visibility into new and emerging cyberthreats and is positioned to help you secure your network. Our advisors help you assess your environment and develop tailored action plans to respond to threats and optimize your tools and applications for efficiency and cost, taking the burden off of in-house IT staff. Recently, IDC acknowledged Lumen as a major player in their IDC 2024 MarketScape for U.S. National Government Professional Security Services. IDC recommended federal agencies strongly consider Lumen when looking to modernize network security, implement full SASE solutions, and enhance SOC capabilities and incident response services. Lumen can help you secure your mission critical data, protecting citizens and staff.
By aligning with industry committees like NSTAC and frameworks like ISO and CMMI, we prioritize rigorous daily security practices and can help you meet your compliance goals without compromising performance. With our guidance and expertise, we can help you develop a proactive and comprehensive security strategy that meets the unique needs of your agency and seamlessly integrates within your environment.
Protecting your data is protecting your citizens—Lumen is here to help you secure your operations today.
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