All federal agencies must secure Internet-exposed devices: CISA

In its first binding operational directive (BOD) of the year, CISA is giving federal civilian agencies just 14 days (from discovery) to lock down Internet exposed network devices. Binding Operational Directive 23-02. The directive applies to all network devices with Internet exposed management interfaces such as routers, firewalls, proxies, and load balancers that grant users admin access to the network. 

CISA said it will be conducting scans to identify devices that fall under the BOD scope and notify agencies of their findings.

“Agencies must be prepared to remove identified networked management interfaces from exposure to the internet or protect them with Zero-Trust capabilities that implement a policy enforcement point separate from the interface itself,” they added.

Neal Dennis, Threat Intelligence Specialist, Cyware had this to say:

   “Controlling your exposure to the internet is critical to any security posture, the more devices directly accessible, the more chances for threat actors to do their thing. Adopting a Zero Trust methodology is a solid option, one that could limit both security concerns directly to the exposed device as well as accesses to connected systems should that device be compromised. A solid Zero Trust approach does not solve all security problems, but it definitely helps limit impact should a breach occur.

  “I view this as a very impactful move by CISA and shows they are taking their role seriously. All organizations, public and private, should strive to limit their publicly accessible internet footprint. Less exposure equals less targets for threat actors which equals less devices you need to monitor for initial incursions, giving you more resources to hopefully monitor critical assets.”

It’s good to see that the CISA is taking this seriously. And it would be in your interest to do the same thing if your company, or you at home have devices exposed to the Internet as threat actors will pwn anything if given the chance.

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