Ep. 3 Network Strategy for Federal Systems

April 5, 2022

Blue Ridge Networks has been in business for over twenty years. CEO John Higginbotham shares how network security began with untrusted networks and has become focused on network strategy for federal systems.

Today’s federal systems reflect commercial systems – there is a mess with data, there are application issues, and some systems have poor security. COVID has caused federal information technology professionals to reassess this status and revise many aspects of security.

COVID has certainly caused a drastic increase in connections taking place Along with that, there is also a need for more protection. During the interview, John Higginbotham suggests that a great starting point is multi-factor authentication. He agrees that frameworks from groups like DoD, NIST, and CISA can help in structuring a plan.

"So it's a recognition of reality that has finally worked its way into other the perspective about how to address risk management and complex networks"

John Higginbotham, Blue Ridge Networks Tweet

However, systems are spread out and services at the edge add a tremendous amount of security challenges. This is especially true for many industrial systems.

One solution from Blue Ridge Networks is something called LinkGuard. It can act as an intermediary between a wide range of endpoints to protect malicious code from entering. It can be called a malware disruptor. It is suggested that a software intermediary at the gateway level will bring much-needed control from a wide variety of endpoints.

After decades of protecting federal systems, John Higginbotham is optimistic about success the federal government will have in making a transition to Zero Trust.

If you enjoyed this podcast, you may want to listen to episode #2 Can Microsoft Help Federal Agencies make the Transition to Zero Trust?