Full Report
Federal IT and cybersecurity officials said companies who sell zero trust technologies to the government must do more to make them interoperable. The post Energy CISO: Agencies can’t implement zero trust alone appeared first on CyberScoop.
Analysis Summary
# Main Topic
Federal agencies require greater interoperability from zero trust technology vendors to overcome implementation hurdles, particularly concerning legacy systems like operational technology (OT), a challenge government organizations cannot solve alone.
## Key Points
- Federal agencies, mandated to implement zero trust since 2021, are struggling with implementation due to technical debt and legacy environments.
- Technology manufacturers must collaborate with agencies to develop technologies and protocols addressing limitations imposed by existing infrastructure.
- NIST observed that initial claims of interoperability among zero trust vendors proved inaccurate during practical implementation projects.
- Specific security capabilities needed for example builds were sometimes missing from vendor offerings checked during NIST evaluations.
- Beyond technical issues, cultural and organizational resistance within federal agencies complicates zero trust adoption.
## Threat Actors
- Not applicable: The focus is on vendor shortcomings and agency implementation challenges, not malign threat actor activity.
## TTPs
- Not applicable: The narrative concerns technology integration challenges and policy implementation obstacles, not adversary tactics or techniques.
## Affected Systems
- Federal IT environments mandated for zero trust implementation since 2021.
- Legacy systems, specifically mentioned is **Operational Technology (OT)** prevalent in the energy sector/Department of Energy.
## Mitigations
- Technology vendors must focus efforts on making zero trust technologies **interoperable** with each other and with legacy systems.
- Government stakeholders (e.g., NIST) are actively working with vendors (reducing 100+ vendors to 24 for testing) to facilitate development of necessary implementation guides.
- Agency practitioners need to improve communication strategies beyond simply "screaming louder" to address cultural/organizational resistance.
## Conclusion
The widespread adoption of zero trust architecture in the federal government is significantly hindered by a lack of interoperability among vendor solutions and constraints imposed by complex, established legacy systems. Success requires urgent, collaborative technical efforts from the vendor community to build compatible products and resolve current operational roadblocks.
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# Morning News Roll-up
## Overview
Key cybersecurity discussions focused on the challenges federal agencies face in implementing mandated Zero Trust architecture, specifically highlighting necessary vendor cooperation for interoperability improvements and organizational resistance.
## Top Stories
### Energy CISO: Agencies can’t implement zero trust alone
- Summary: Department of Energy CISO Paul Selby stressed that vendors must help overcome technical barriers, complexity from legacy systems (including OT), and cultural resistance hindering federal zero trust adoption.
- Source: [Energy CISO: Agencies can’t implement zero trust alone | CyberScoop](https://cyberscoop.com/zero-trust-federal-government-vendors-interoperable/#main)
### NIST finds zero trust vendors claim interoperability but fail in practice
- Summary: NIST's Cherilyn Pascoe noted that during testing for a zero trust implementation guide, many vendors who initially claimed full interoperability could not successfully integrate their products as expected, and some necessary security capabilities were missing.
- Source: [Energy CISO: Agencies can’t implement zero trust alone | CyberScoop](https://cyberscoop.com/zero-trust-federal-government-vendors-interoperable/#main)
### Organizational inertia and ineffective communication impeding cybersecurity mandates
- Summary: Beyond technical issues, DOE CISO Selby pointed to "cultural and organizational resistance" within agencies, attributing part of the problem to poor communication strategies by cybersecurity practitioners.
- Source: [Energy CISO: Agencies can’t implement zero trust alone | CyberScoop](https://cyberscoop.com/zero-trust-federal-government-vendors-interoperable/#main)