Crack the Code: How the Biden-Harris National Cybersecurity Strategy is Leading the Charge Against Online Threats

By Galaxia Martin, Solution Director for Cloud and Cybersecurity

The Biden-Harris administration has strongly emphasized cybersecurity, recognizing its critical importance in the modern digital landscape. The administration has proposed several initiatives and legislative actions to strengthen national cybersecurity. The National Cybersecurity Act is defined into five pillars: (1) Defend Critical Infrastructure, (2) Disrupt and Dismantle Threat Actors, (3) Shape Market Forces to Drive Security and Resilience, (4) Invest in a Resilient Future, and (5) Forge International Partnerships to Pursue Shared Goals.

SDI has been talking with our customers about these changes and the goal of having this all in place before 2025. We have heard the challenges of how these changes that are now required are impacting our customers. Many customers have a similar challenge in their environments such as.

1. Patching within a reasonable timeframe.
   
   1. Testing, change management, and push to production are all delays in the process.
2. Isolating legacy hardware and applications/replacement.
3. Changes in ongoing technology limit the ability to update or add additional policies and procedures in a timely manner.
4. Incident response to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within 24 hours of the event is impactful due to siloed solutions and the inability to capture events within those rules.  
5. SaaS Risk.

How is SDI helping close the gaps and reduce the impact of the National Cybersecurity Strategy on our customers?

1. SDI has an automated robust patching solution as well as a process to ensure that the patching process is now slowed down but is appropriately tested. We manage our clients' backup and disaster recovery, ensuring we always have redundancy in any maintenance event.  
2. Isolating Legacy Hardware and Applications
   
   1. SDI has the brightest and innovative designs for system hardening and network segmentation practices. We protect large state and local entities from cyber criminals, so we ensure we use all the best practices and recommendations from CISA. Any legacy devices or applications are being replaced or removed from the core environment but are allowed limited access.  
   2. Legacy Hardware
      
      1. SDI has several hardware manufacturers that we are partners with that help with any refresh project and, at times, consider cloud to eliminate physical hardware needs.  
   3. Legacy Applications
      
      1. Legacy systems, referring to older technology and infrastructure that may be outdated or unsupported, often present significant cybersecurity challenges. These systems can be vulnerable to cyber-attacks due to outdated software and a lack of security features. It's essential for organizations, including government agencies, to address the security risks associated with legacy systems through modernization, updates, and robust cybersecurity measures.  
3. SDI helps our customers leverage our vCISO teams to review and regularly modify any missing or stale policies and procedures. We also conduct ongoing assessments, but with our vCISO teams, we are always there working on these tasks, so when an assessment occurs, the findings are minimal.  
4. Incident response is an art that only works well if you have defined processes and solutions to capture the event live properly. SDI offers several solutions, such as EDR/MDR, SOC as a Service and 24/7 end-to-end Support. You should never be in a situation where you are unsure how the event occurred or are missing logs even to understand the event. Our solutions are designed to make sure we have the proper ability to capture events, maintain logs lifecycle, and that we are there to support you.  
5. SDI helps SaaS risk management by leveraging solutions with various tools, including risk assessment and management.  

Contact SDI today to fortify your defenses and embrace the future of cybersecurity. Together, let's crack the code and build a safer digital environment for your organization.  

The National Cybersecurity Act

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/National-Cybersecurity-Strategy-2023.pdf

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