The need for better procurement processes is an important step in protecting commercial and federal networks from being compromised. However, the federal government needs to better coordinate and leverage industry in protecting the aging technology infrastructure often built before cyber security was an issue
Contracts need to have security baked into them, to ensure that networks can leverage industry practices and commercial products to have both offensive and defensive capabilities.
This article discusses how the challenging procurement processes often impeded these commercial solutions, and what needs to happen for government to move forward into both modernizing their infrastructure, and ensuring cybersecurity is paramount in the architecture of federal networks.