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Shining a Light on Data Security in the Public Sector

Beth McElroy Miniatur
Beth McElroy
Published July 18, 2023

U.S. federal, state, and local agencies, as well as higher education institutions, are under mounting pressure to keep costs down while amassing enormous volumes of data as they serve a growing number of civilians, students, government employees, and faculties. To help meet the ever-increasing demand for always-on services and always-available information, schools and government agencies are adopting new technologies and multiple cloud provider solutions. As these organizations invest to push their services closer to the end users, it has become imperative that they must also protect the privacy and integrity of the data.

Taking a firm stance on this matter, in May of 2021, the U.S. president signed Executive Order 14028, which “prioritizes protecting and modernizing Federal Government systems and data.”1 Its primary goal is to ensure that information shared between the U.S. government and the private sector is protected by the following methods:

  • Enhanced standards for secure software development
  • Improved detection of cyber threats targeting government systems
  • Mitigating vulnerabilities throughout the public sector ecosystem

This puts security teams on the defensive while straining precious business and operating resources. And in many cases, organizations are still exposed to significant harm.

Empowering Institutions with Funding for Modern Tools and Strategies

To aid in this effort, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requested a total of $2.6 billion in its FY 2022 cybersecurity budget, with projections that overall U.S. funding in this area will increase in 2023 to $10.46 billion.2

These funds will, in part, support state, local, federal, and education institutions to acquire and deploy the modern tools required to help them overcome some common challenges when modernizing applications with a transition to the cloud:

  • Automated attacks that lead to fraud: Advanced technologies enable an industrialized attack lifecycle that begins with automation and ends in fraud
  • Attacks amid complexity: Cross-department and cross-agency visibility is fragmented as architecture and operations are increasingly decentralized
  • Performance at risk: Functional growth and global reach, coupled with higher end-user demand, amplify complexity and costs
  • Multi-cloud barriers: Adopting multiple cloud providers exposes even more complexity, cost, and a gap in critical skills

The Department of Homeland Security also announced a $1 billion State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, designed to help state and local governments better address cybersecurity risks and threats to information systems.3

Cybersecurity investments made in partnership with F5 and Google Cloud can help streamline legacy application modernization and reduce complexity by supporting rapid app innovation, integrated security, and accelerated app deployment.

Adaptive Applications Protect Data Privacy and Integrity

End users have come to expect easy-to-use applications from their service providers. They also expect their personal information to be safeguarded, protecting their privacy throughout their experience. Delight your users by modernizing your existing applications, building new ones, and running them flexibly and securely in the latest hybrid or multi-cloud environments that can stand up to a range of ever-evolving attack types.

With F5 and Google Cloud, you can safely build adaptive apps, automate security and performance policies by shifting them left within your DevSecOps program, and bring the features, data, and benefits closer to your users without delaying releases or compromising their experience.

Engage with Confidence with Integrated Experiences

Today’s apps can combine multiple data sets, API-driven services, and a collection of innovative features for a modern, engaging, user-friendly experience.

With F5 and Google Cloud, you can deliver new capabilities to your users and increase agility by using APIs maximized for peak performance. You can also centralize security management of your APIs across any data center or cloud using a simple, fast, and scalable multi-cloud architecture.

To ensure service resilience, you can monitor every transaction for signs of fraud or risky behavior. With powerful AI and machine learning built in, you can identify and stop sophisticated, malicious activity initiated by unauthorized users and automated bots without frustrating legitimate users. This reduces the burden on your infrastructure and stops attempts to compromise the integrity of critical information.

Keep Agency and Institution Operations Smooth and Secure with F5 and Google Cloud

We’re here to help defend your institution’s digital systems and data against existing and emerging threats. F5 and Google Cloud enable frictionless security to protect critical applications from bot attacks, web fraud, unauthorized access, DDoS attacks, DNS attacks, and attacks against APIs. Our solutions provide the automation, availability, and robust feature sets federal, state, and local agencies require to accomplish their mission, including DevSecOps solutions.

Together, we help government agencies and educational institutions secure and deliver extraordinary digital experiences through adaptive applications that grow, shrink, defend, and gain insights to evolve to changing environments quickly. Agencies, institutions, and schools win when they can provide modern customer-centric services that enable department engagement with users while protecting personal data at the state, local, and federal levels.

For more information about secure your agency's future with advanced data protection solutions, visit F5 Public Sector Solutions.