Here in the United States, we often focus on the cybersecurity readiness of the federal government. The reality is that state and local government departments are just as, if not more vulnerable to cyber attacks. Nearly one quarter of their employees use personal devices for work, where security teams have little visibility, enabling threat actors to execute phishing and other malicious activities. These risks will only continue to grow as in-person services continue remotely.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps have become essential to how most of us run our organizations and stay productive — especially over the last two years. On any given day, you’re likely messaging colleagues using Slack or Teams, sharing files with partners from Google Drive or Microsoft SharePoint, or working in Workday or Salesforce to perform an HR- or sales-related business process.

While the pandemic brought on unprecedented challenges related to full-scale telework, it has also moved cybersecurity to the top of the U.S. government’s agenda. I have been very encouraged by the various actions taken by the Biden administration, beginning with the May 2021 executive order directing federal agencies to rapidly adopt a Zero Trust architecture.