Major General McPhail on Zero Trust and ICAM at Cybersmart 2025

Identity isn't overhead—it's your mission advantage For too long, government agencies treated identity management like plumbing: necessary but invisible. The result? Siloed systems, VPN vulnerabilities, and gaps that attackers love to exploit. Here's what's changed: With Executive Order 14028 and OMB's M-22-09 Federal Zero Trust Strategy now in force, identity has moved from the IT checklist to the center of mission success. Modern ICAM (Identity, Credential, and Access Management) isn't just about compliance - it delivers real operational wins: * Continuity during attacks -Reduce account takeover and lateral movement risks * Mandate compliance - Meet Zero Trust requirements with phishing-resistant MFA * Citizen trust - Secure service delivery that people can rely on * Cost efficiency - Cut VPN dependencies and help desk burden The shift requires more than new tools. It demands securing the full access chain - from citizen-facing apps to internal APIs to network infrastructure - with continuous validation and least-privilege access at every step. At Akamai, we're helping agencies turn identity into a strategic security advantage with solutions that protect apps, secure APIs, enable Zero Trust access, and limit lateral movement. Because when identity is done right, agencies don't just stop threats - they enable better, faster mission delivery. Read how modern ICAM transforms government security: https://lnkd.in/enh22EiU #Cybersecurity #ZeroTrust #PublicSector #GovernmentIT #IdentityManagement

Cohesity and Semperis just rewrote the rulebook on identity security. Introducing Cohesity Identity Resilience, powered by Semperis! Designed to protect, recover, and investigate critical identity infrastructure like never before. From proactive hardening & immutable backups to fast recovery and forensic clarity post-attack, this is cyber resilience elevated. 🔐 https://lnkd.in/eAPE8xu3 #IdentitySecurity #CyberResilience #ADProtection #DataTrust

Cohesity and Semperis just rewrote the rulebook on identity security. Introducing Cohesity Identity Resilience, powered by Semperis! Designed to protect, recover, and investigate critical identity infrastructure like never before. From proactive hardening & immutable backups to fast recovery and forensic clarity post-attack, this is cyber resilience elevated. 🔐 https://lnkd.in/gXdsHtP6 #IdentitySecurity #CyberResilience #ADProtection #DataTrust

Cohesity and Semperis just rewrote the rulebook on identity security. Introducing Cohesity Identity Resilience, powered by Semperis! Designed to protect, recover, and investigate critical identity infrastructure like never before. From proactive hardening & immutable backups to fast recovery and forensic clarity post-attack, this is cyber resilience elevated. 🔐 https://lnkd.in/gf7YCicX #IdentitySecurity #CyberResilience #ADProtection #DataTrust

Cohesity and Semperis just rewrote the rulebook on identity security. Introducing Cohesity Identity Resilience, powered by Semperis! Designed to protect, recover, and investigate critical identity infrastructure like never before. From proactive hardening & immutable backups to fast recovery and forensic clarity post-attack, this is cyber resilience elevated. 🔐 https://lnkd.in/gyDpyGhR #IdentitySecurity #CyberResilience #ADProtection #DataTrust @Cohesity #ADProtection #Cohesity #CyberResilience

Big news for the Fed space: Beyond Identity is partnering with Carahsoft to bring our secure-by-design identity platform to government agencies. With Carahsoft, we're delivering security solutions that meet critical mandates to federal agencies, without adding friction for the people who use them. This partnership is a major step in modernizing federal identity security. I'm excited for what’s ahead. This is how we move the needle on federal cybersecurity. https://lnkd.in/dGJDYa-H Beyond Identity

Identity threats are reshaping cybersecurity faster than most organisations can adapt. This article by Identity Management Institute highlights how the shift to cloud-native and API-driven environments has made identity the new attack surface. We’re seeing this every day: attackers no longer “break in”; they log in. The real challenge isn’t detection, it’s visibility and control across both human and machine identities. At Assertiv, we believe the focus now must be on: - Continuous validation of trust, not just initial authentication. - Managing service accounts and API keys with the same discipline as user accounts. - Building resilience: being able to isolate, contain, and recover fast when an identity is compromised. Identity-first security isn’t a slogan anymore. It’s the new perimeter, and it’s already under attack. #identitymanagementinstitute #identitysecurity #assertiv

🛡️ Identity is the new perimeter. 🔐 IAM (Identity and Access Management) isn’t just about logins — it’s the control plane of modern cybersecurity. It ensures the right people get the right access at the right time — protecting systems from credential theft, insider threats, and compliance risks. But even the strongest IAM setup can’t stop what you can’t see. 🕵️ That’s where dark web monitoring comes in. Platforms like Darknetsearch.com scan hidden forums, marketplaces, and botnets — alerting you when your credentials, data, or infrastructure are exposed before attackers strike. ✅ IAM secures your doors. 🧠 Darknetsearch watches the alleyways. Together, they form a proactive defense strategy built for today’s threat landscape. 📘 Learn more about IAM here: https://lnkd.in/gUYivi8k

🔥 Identity is the new perimeter — and it’s under attack. https://lnkd.in/eq8DUEFd As AI agents, automation, and non-human accounts explode across modern IT environments, identity has become both our first and last line of defense. Here’s what stood out for me 👇 🔐 Access is everything. Every user, device, and process must be verified, monitored, and governed — continuously. 🧩 The traditional perimeter is dead. Identity is the control plane now. 📈 Smart investment pays off. Organizations prioritizing identity-first security are seeing stronger ROI and reduced breach risk. 🤖 AI identities are real. As machine accounts grow, governance must evolve too. Having led infrastructure, and cybersecurity initiatives, I’ve seen first hand how critical a mature identity strategy is — not just for protection, but for operational agility and compliance. #CyberSecurity #IdentitySecurity #IAM #ZeroTrust #Infosec #Infrastructure #ITLeadership

Picture this It's midnight. A sophisticated threat actor is probing a major bank's defences using compromised credentials. Traditional security? They'd wait for alarms, then scramble to understand what happened. But today's reality? An MDR analyst is already hunting the threat, tracing the identity breach back to its source, and neutralising the attack before any damage occurs. This isn't fiction, it's the cybersecurity revolution reshaping the Middle East and Africa. The Plot Twist Nobody Saw Coming Here's the uncomfortable truth: MEA's cybersecurity story reads like a thriller where the good guys were losing. Fast. 90% of GCC companies desperately hunt for security talent. The region stares at thousands of empty security desks. The human cost? 69% of regional CISOs admit to burnout, while 83% say exhaustion caused mistakes leading to actual breaches. Imagine running a hospital with half your doctors missing. That's MEA cybersecurity today. Then Enter the Game-Changers Instead of waiting for the talent crisis to magically resolve (spoiler: it won't), smart organisations asked a different question: "What if we don't need to hire security experts, what if we access them as a service?" Enter MDR providers, Instead of owning complete security teams, organisations now stream expert-level capabilities on demand. But here's what makes them revolutionary: they're not just plugging holes in the old model. They're building an entirely new one that puts identity at the center. The Identity-First Revolution Traditional security watched the perimeter. MDR watches identities, the real attack vector. Every midnight breach starts with a compromised credential, stolen token, or hijacked account. Modern MDR doesn't just detect threats; it traces them back to identity sources, understanding not just what happened, but who was involved and how access was obtained. The MEA Advantage What's fascinating is GCC organisations implementing MDR with integrated identity monitoring see 70% faster threat detection and 85% reduction in credential-based attacks. At The Kernel, we understand that the strongest detection starts with the strongest identity foundation. MDR services amplify the value of robust authentication and identity management -our core expertise- with our partners working on all levels of Identity security we ensure MDR services have the clean identity signals they need to distinguish real threats from false positives that make identity security truly effective. At the Kernel, we architect the identity infrastructure that makes MDR truly transformative. Ready to build identity-first security that MDR can amplify? Discover how The Kernel's authentication and identity management solutions create the foundation for threat detection at www.thekernel.com #Cybersecurity #MDR #IdentitySecurity #AuthenticationManagement #MEATransformation #ThreatHunting #DigitalSecurity #CyberResilience #IdentityFirst #SecurityServices