Navigating the Muddy Waters of Cybersecurity [#Infographic]

Cyberattacks on federal agencies have been increasing since 2006. For this reason, the federal government has been striving to bring all programs and agencies under a secure umbrella — not an easy task.

Strategic IT decisions need to be made in order to ensure protection of government Big Data. Cyberattacks will not go away; the only solution is for IT professionals to mitigate risk without compromising infrastructure.

The future of government cybersecurity includes policy reform and the obvious growing pains that go along with it. The White House and the National Security Council have outlined clear objectives for the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative:

President Obama has identified cybersecurity as one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation, but one that we as a government or as a country are not adequately prepared to counter. Shortly after taking office, the President therefore ordered a thorough review of federal efforts to defend the U.S. information and communications infrastructure and the development of a comprehensive approach to securing America’s digital infrastructure.

Embracing technology trends, such as cloud computing and mobile-device integration, depends on many factors that are unique to each agency. Budget allocation and service objectives can block or dictate the path forward.

Federal IT professionals have to build a proverbial moat around the network fortress while examining the security vulnerabilities of emerging technology.

Here is GovLoop’s visual breakdown of technology-deployment priorities and the types of attacks federal agencies can anticipate.