What Lies at the Foundation of Cyber Security of the U.S. Government?

Folks,

Today, I wanted to take a brief moment to share another simple fact with you that impacts national and global security.

At the very foundation of cyber security of the entire United States Government lies a single technology - Active Directory.

From the White House to the U.S. Senate and from the Department of Defense to the Department of Justice, virtually every agency in the United States Government operates on Active Directory, as do the CIA, the NSA, the FBI etc. etc.


That's right - virtually every federal, state and local agency in the United States Government operates on Active Directory, and today, collectively hundreds of millions of security permissions specified in the access control lists (ACLs) of millions of Active Directory objects collectively serve to secure and protect the entire United States Government.

Thus, whether it be U.S. President Donald Trump or Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Mitch McConnell or Attorney General William Barr, in all likelihood, they all have an Active Directory domain user account that they login with every day, as do virtually all U.S. Government employees, including all Secretaries (State, Defense, etc.) and Directors (CIA, NSA, etc.)


Today, the vast majority of the U.S. Government's IT assets are protected by its foundational Active Directory deployments.

The adequate protection and defense of the foundational Active Directory deployments of all federal, state and local government agencies, and those of all U.S. Embassies worldwide, is of paramount importance to U.S. National Security.


Here's a two-page Executive Summary - Active Directory Security for the United States Government.


That's all for today.

Best wishes,
Sanjay.