Strengthening security resilience through the power of automation

Threat actors are growing more specialized and sophisticated in their attacks, which requires an increasingly proactive posture from the federal government.

In a new panel discussion, Department of Education CISO Steven Hernandez and Fortinet Federal CTO Felipe Fernandez discuss how automation is helping agencies respond more effectively to cyber threats.

Hernandez noted that cybercriminals now have access to “marketplaces for automated attacks,” driving new defensive tactics to keep pace.

“We have security, orchestration, automation and response, which is really taking the actions in the SOC — our security operations center — and automating them, you know, taking 80% of the load off the human and letting the machine do that work,” he explains. However, he adds that his department continues to work on modulating their defenses “so that we’re constantly evolving [and threats] don’t get through in the first place.”

Fernandez added that with the advancement of AI, even cybercriminals with limited experience have a more accessible entry into cybercrime.

“While we can scoff at the…low quality of code, the truth is that [with AI] right now and forever, the code is learning how to write better code. So, at some point, this is going to be [both] efficient and effective,” he warns.

Hernandez and Fernandez discussed the growing importance of data and how this will largely shape strategies and cybersecurity postures moving forward.

“We spend so much time talking about protecting confidentiality, but our lives at the pinnacle are really about three things — confidentiality, integrity and availability. And when we talk about resilience, we’re really talking about that availability piece,” explained Hernandez. “Automation can play an incredible role in making sure that our systems are resilient.”

Watch the full panel to hear more security insights and learn more about evolving government security architectures.

This video panel discussion was produced by Scoop News Group and FedScoop and underwritten by Fortinet Federal.