“In the remote work environment spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic, more flexible, quicker methods of getting systems the authority to securely operate is more critical than ever, said a top IT advisor at the Department of Health and Human Services.”
“Machine learning is critical in terms of fighting fire with fire. We can’t fight AI [artificial intelligence] or machine learning with spreadsheets or Word documents. You’re going to lose that battle” with hackers, said Oki Mek, senior advisor to the agency’s CIO and its ReImagine project.
“HHS is one of the agencies at the center of the federal government’s response to the COVID pandemic. The agency is “getting hit hard” by hackers attempting to penetrate its networks, said Mek. Additionally, hackers and bad actors are leveraging AI to see how network users are interacting with infrastructure and systems, he said…”
“Automated ATOs, leveraging machine learning and AI, said Mek, can shorten review of hundreds of security controls on a system and provide an assessment in hours or days, rather than months.”
“Automated ATOs, he said, could follow the same model as popular commercial machine learning and AI-based tax filing software. That software draws on previous year’s data…” Read the full article here.
Source: Automated ATOs and cybersecurity – By Mark Rockwell, October 14, 2020. FCW.