October 2018 AST 'ASTORS' Finalist Edition Oct 2018 AST Magazine Final (10.16.18) | Page 5

NEXT
YEAR
Volume
27 AND
September 2018 Edition
BEYOND AS BIL-
LIONS
MORE DIGITAL
DEVICES
ARE
CONNECTED—
WITH
RELA-
TIVELY
LITTLE
BUILT-IN SECU-
RITY—AND BOTH
NATION STATES
AND
MALIGN (Testifying at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats, Director of
ACTORS BECOME National Intelligence Dan Coats said the U.S. is “threatened by cyberattacks every day.”
creasing the complexity of its networks,
MORE EMBOLD-
ENED AND BETTER EQUIPPED IN THE USE it’s creating additional access points for
OF INCREASINGLY WIDESPREAD CYBER hackers to exploit.
TOOLKITS.”
It may also be making it more challenging
As the defense sector continues invest- for federal IT professionals to lock their
ing in connected devices, thereby in- agencies’ virtual doors, monitor their net-
works, and keep data pro-
tected.
This is challenging, but not
impossible.
As many as 90M people were affected by the Facebook hack disclosed on
September 28, 2018.
By focusing on people, tech-
nology, and planning, federal
network administrators may
get a better handle on their
networks, while strengthen-
ing security policies that can
keep the “nation states and
malign actors” at bay.
3