Bill Rucker, president of Trustwave Government Solutions, has said government agencies should establish strategic partnerships and identify vulnerabilities in order to protect networks and counter cyber hackers.
Rucker wrote that agencies should leverage their partnerships with managed service providers to gain access to threat intelligence amid the evolving threat landscape.
“The best partners harvest intelligence worldwide to provide rich context and knowledge of cyberattackers’ tactics, techniques and procedures, and they have the expertise to use that knowledge to engage adversaries in direct battle and eradicate them from clients’ networks,†he said.
Government organizations should implement security policies that are targeted at the end user, which is considered the “weakest link.â€
“Agencies can quickly identify and close security gaps introduced by users, such as weak or reused passwords and the tendency to click on suspicious links, through penetration testing and red-teaming capabilities,†he noted.
He called on agencies to integrate best practices and continuous security training initiatives for employees into their contingency and security plans and have oversight of critical information in their networks.
Rucker cited how agencies could benefit from threat hunting and the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program of the Department of Homeland Security.
