https://www.fifthdomain.com/critical-infrastructure/2019/01/30/surprising-ways-the-government-shutdown-actually-boosted-cybersecurity/
By Justin Lynch
FifthDomain.com
1/30/2019
Lawmakers and IT security analysts have warned that the 35-day partial
government shutdown crippled cybersecurity of federal networks. However,
new research shows that the shutdown actually boosted the federal
government’s digital defenses in some areas.
Security Scorecard, an organization that tests cybersecurity, found that
both endpoint security and patching actually increased inside the federal
government during the five-week partial shutdown.
The study illustrates the complicated nature of improving cybersecurity
inside the federal government and the overwhelming workloads IT officials
face.
"The most secure computer is one that is turned off, and there were a lot
of turned off computers during the shutdown," Alex Heid, chief research
officer at Security Scorecard, told Fifth Domain. "We saw a drop in
internet traffic coming from .gov during the shutdown," which made the
federal government "less of an exploitable attack vector."
[...]
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