Welcome to Iron Bow's TechSource, a blog about the issues facing the government and industry today and the technologies being adopted to help overcome them.
Banding Together to Modernize the Federal Workplace
“Going to work” no longer means commuting to a physical place of work, an office building, with a desk. Today’s workers expect to be mobile, productive on the go and able to work in the field thanks to mobile technologies and secure network connections. They demand cutting-edge technology—the latest in tablets, high performance processors and […]
Automation: Redefining Cyber Protection
According to Gartner’s Innovation Insight for Security Orchestration, Automation and Response report, organizations struggle to keep up with the vast number of new cyber security attacks because they’re too often utilizing manual processes to combat breaches. In the United States alone, cyber security incidents skyrocketed over the last five years. In 2012, about 419 million […]
Cloud Smarter, Not Harder
There’s no question that cloud is an enabler of digital transformation. Spending 80 percent of IT budgets to support legacy systems, as reported by the Office of Personnel Management, is not providing the resources agencies need to modernize. Legacy systems not only hinder innovation but also security. In fact, 85 percent of federal IT leaders […]
AI Will Power the Future—Are You Ready?
By 2019, 40 percent of all digital transformation initiatives will be enabled by AI. AI is already a part of most people’s daily lives; from dynamically pricing Uber trips and making Google maps route decisions to tagging friends on Facebook and setting FICO scores to determine our credit worthiness. While there are many applications of […]
RMF and the Evolution of Cyber Security Frameworks
Government cyber security regulation isn’t new, but it is constantly changing. Nearly a decade after the first relatively static cyber security standards were introduced in 2006, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) set out to develop a continuous process for networks security with the Department of Defense (DoD) Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation […]
Don’t Ignore the Cryptominer in the Coalmine: What You Need to Know About the Biggest Cyber Threat Trend of 2018
While the market value of cryptocurrencies has recently experienced a downturn, there’s no denying its exponential growth, peaking at over $700 billion in early 2018. While investors have seen the value in cryptocurrency, so have bad actors and cyber criminals looking to take advantage of this emerging trend. Cryptomining attacks are relatively lucrative, simple to […]
Collaboration Is One of Cloud’s Greatest Benefits—Here’s How to Make It Work
For years, the mantra powering federal cloud migration was cutting costs. While cloud environments do generate savings, an attractive benefit to cash-strapped IT departments, there’s much more to cloud computing. One even more important benefit to government is the ability to collaborate. It used to be that data was relatively static. Data in the cloud […]
Transforming Legacy Systems: Where Cloud and Processing Power Intersect
The “Journey to the Cloud” describes a wholesale shift in the technology, operation, and administration of the modern data, in ways not seen since server architectures were fundamentally redrawn with the introduction of the microcomputer, in the 1980s. This change means that the traditional three tier data center era, of separately managed server, storage and […]
Leading Women: Shannon Leininger’s Journey to the Top
While women occupy about 57 percent of professional jobs in the United States, they represent only about 27 percent of the tech workforce, according to the National Center for Women in Information Technology. Beyond that, women hold only 17 percent of chief information officer positions at Fortune 500 companies. Recently, as part of Iron Bow’s […]
Printers: The Overlooked Entryway Into Your Network
Computers, smartphones and tablets—we know these devices are susceptible to cyber attacks and, as a result, take incredible caution to lock them down and cordon them off from cyber criminals. But have you also considered that large device that whirs and flashes as it scans, copies and prints valuable internal information? Your printer is also […]
Protecting Government Data in the Age of Ransomware
According to a February report by Dell Technologies and Secureworks, cyber security researchers saw 200 new ransomware variants in 2016—a 122 percent increase from the previous year. Ransomware sent out by a malicious actor infects a user’s device and encrypts their data. The attacker then threatens to block access to the data unless a ransom is paid. […]
Moving to the Cloud? Remember, It’s More Than a Destination
2018 is an amazing time to work in government IT. The possibilities enabled by machine learning, AI and IoT are poised to redefine what government can achieve. Digital transformation is becoming a reality because we finally have the infrastructure to make it work. This is in large part thanks to the cloud. While cloud is […]
Mission-Critical Workloads, Dispersed Locations, Unpredictable Demands: When SD-WAN is the Ideal Solution
While many look to Washington, D.C. as the hub of the federal government, the reality is that agencies have branches and staff throughout the country and around the world. Federal employees need a reliable network that spans disparate offices across the globe. Think about the gravity of this scenario. An agency spends months preparing for […]
