Over the next year, domestic and foreign adversaries almost certainly will continue to threaten the integrity of US critical infrastructure,” states the Homeland Threat Assessment 2025. “We are particularly concerned about the credible threat from nation-state cyber actors to US critical infrastructure.”
In light of these and other severe threats to U.S. federal agencies, the issue of federal cybersecurity cannot be left up to compliance mandates alone.
The False Sense of Security in Compliance-Only Models
Compliance can only go so far. The expression “compliance does not equal security” may be overused, but it still rings true. Alignment with essential government frameworks like FISMA, CUI, CMMC, and (let’s throw in) Zero Trust is still the right place to start. But they are not enough because compliance models are still largely reactive in their requirements.
In looking towards compliance frameworks alone, agencies often miss out on adopting a proactive and adaptive threat defense approach. Considering that attacks hit harder, faster, and more severely than ever before, sitting around in a reactive stance gives attackers too much of an edge. It introduces a wide-swinging door of unnecessary risk and puts critical federal agencies in a posture of “taking chances” that is inappropriate for protecting the American public.
Instead, all due diligence should be engaged in to provide the best cybersecurity for defending the American public, starting with the government entities standing as gatekeepers. That best defense is a proactive, forward-looking approach.
Overlooked but Critical Capabilities:
In pursuit of a cybersecurity approach aggressively competitive with today’s top threat actors, the following capabilities need to be introduced.
Deep Content Inspection for Email Security: Fortra’s Deep Content Inspection (DCI) goes beyond basic checks and blocks alone. It analyzes email content at a granular level, examining file structures, removing sensitive metadata, performing URL lookups, sanitizing malicious images, and more.
Advanced DLP beyond simple blocking: Set hard and soft limits on specific data actions, mitigate overtly suspicious behaviors, and prompt users to acknowledge corporate policies before taking data risks. Fortra DLP also automatically applies and updates those data polices as they evolve, while going beyond mandates to protect your sensitive intellectual property (IP).
Secure collaboration without sacrificing agility: Secure collaboration can often mean time-consuming, clunky processes based on waiting and approval. With Fortra, secure collaboration means no software is required for end-users (external or internal), and protections follow the data, not the storage locations. Documents are encrypted even after download, AES 256 protects any file type with a single click, and no significant training or workflow changes are required.
Monitoring configuration integrity in real time: In an ever-growing business, new changes could fall on the wrong side of compliance (and security) on a daily basis. Fortra Secure Configuration Management discovers hidden assets, determines the correct configuration baselines for each asset, detects any changes, and brings assets back into configuration in real-time.
Executive protection in the age of digital identity attacks: Attack trends have been leaning heavily towards more advanced social engineering tactics, especially since the unleashing of generative AI. Executives are especially at risk of high-profile spear phishing attacks and reputational damage. Fortra Brand Protection offers social media monitoring, dark web monitoring, specialized takedowns, world-class mitigation, and industry-level executive protection.
Red teaming and true adversary emulation: Every military organization engages in pre-combat drills – known as war games, maneuvers, immediate action drills – to be fully ready for anything adversaries can throw at them. Cyberwarfare is no different. When federal agencies and critical infrastructure is constantly under attack, government SOCs cannot afford to subject their tools and talent to the same kinds of advanced tactics they’ll face in the real world. Fortra offensive security tools like Core Impact (pen testing), Cobalt Strike (red teaming) and Outflank Security (advanced red teaming toolkit) are key to stress-testing critical policies and postures.
Because many of these have yet to be codified (completely) in standard compliance frameworks, they are frequently thought of as “optional.” However, these are the very defense tactics that can prevent so many of those other defenses from having to be used. Cyberwarfare is a key battleground in contemporary national security, and tactics of traditional warfare should be applied. No country adequately defends itself by hunkering down in place and playing emergency response. Instead, those that succeed know the enemy, and know where they will strike – even before the enemy itself does.
Adopting a proactive, or offensive, security approach ensures that federal cybersecurity powers have the right data to preemptively defend themselves. A compliance-only approach leaves much room to be surprised by the enemy.
The Role of Fortra
Fortra has long been a trusted partner of federal government organizations, delivering both offensive and defensive solutions across the entire attack chain. And both are needed.
Providing powerful solutions geared towards compliance, along with AI-driven tools and proprietary technology to transcend it, Fortra helps agencies bridge the gap between compliance and active threat defense. Its solutions are aligned with federal compliance standards (FISMA, CUI, CMMC), offering strong protection against ransomware and advanced persistent threats.
But most of all, it understands the need to know what’s coming – and what’s already out there. By investing in the tools and expertise that know how to break the cyber kill chain – at any stage – federal agencies get a partner that prepares them for attacks in the real-world. Proving that you had your doors locked is good. But gaining intelligence beforehand about subtle adversarial behaviors and hidden internal threats – and getting there first – is infinitely better.
Break the Attack Chain with Fortra®
Advanced offensive and defensive security solutions. Complete attack chain coverage. Shared threat intel and analytics. Add Fortra® to your arsenal.
