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Strauss Senior Cyber Fellow Nather Discusses 2021 Information Security Issues

Nov 15, 2021 |

On November 4, Strauss senior cybersecurity fellow Wendy Nather delivered the keynote address at the SecTor security education conference. In her remarks, Nather outlined the various concerns that IT security professionals face now and likely for years to come. She noted that zero trust efforts were accelerated during the pandemic when employees predominantly worked remotely from home. Under a zero trust security architecture, all users and devices must be first authenticated and authorized before gaining access to sensitive resources or data. 

One challenge that emerged during the pandemic, Nather noted, is making effective use of biometric multi-factor authentication technology, including fingerprint and face recognition technology. With masks causing face ID to stop working, Nather said that IT security professionals had to determine what factors could be used for authentication purposes in a zero trust environment. She also described some of the issues associated with the increasing volume of encrypted internet traffic. Nather warned about a potential future where fewer IT security professionals have direct control over the organizations’ networks. You can read the full summary of Nather’s remarks here.

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