Okta Applauds New US National Cybersecurity Strategy
Today, the White House Office of the National Cyber Director released its National Cybersecurity Strategy. Okta applauds the Biden-Harris administration for its work producing this comprehensive strategy, for its close partnership with the private sector, and for advancing the important work of strengthening the nation’s cybersecurity with a focus on digital identity. This strategy is a continuation of the importance the administration has placed on improving America’s cybersecurity since taking office. We wish Director Chris Inglis well in his retirement, thank him for his decades of public service, and look forward to working with Acting National Cyber Director, Ms. Kemba Walden, and others in the administration as we partner together to inform the implementation of this strategy.
Okta fully supports the administration's goal of reducing cyber attacks at the source by securing organizations, platforms, and technology and, by doing so, better protecting the public. With over 17,600 customers, Okta is at the forefront of this work, securing identities across sectors. We agree that the federal government and critical infrastructure owners and operators should adopt modern cyber approaches like Zero Trust architecture and solutions like multi-factor authentication (MFA) for their workforces. We continue to work alongside the federal government to further promote and drive the adoption of modern cybersecurity practices.
As Strategic Objective 4.5 in the strategy makes clear, strong digital identity solutions are vital not just for the workforce. There is a need for stronger customer or public-facing digital identity protections as well. In this year’s State of the Union address, President Biden called on governments to “...crack down on identity fraud by criminal syndicates stealing billions of dollars from the American people.” With federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government agency customers, Okta is engaged in the work of ensuring the safe, secure, and effective delivery of services and benefits across the US interagency and intergovernmental levels. We stand ready to expand our partnership to accomplish this mission.
The strategy is right to insist that digital identity solutions guard privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties, provide vendor choice, ensure security and interoperability, and promote inclusivity without bias. These principles reflect our company’s core values and help guide us as we serve our customers, design our products, and build our ecosystem. We are prepared to partner with the administration to uphold these principles as this strategy moves forward to the implementation phases.
Finally, as a global identity management company, it’s important to call out the administration’s recognition of the imperative of international diplomacy in cybersecurity. There is a positive impact on all stakeholders when we align and harmonize cybersecurity regulations and digital identity standards to enable the benefits of digital trade, cross-border data flow, and standards-based interoperability.
Overall, the administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy represents significant and much-needed progress for the U.S.’s collective approach to securing and empowering organizations and the public alike. Every day, as a leader in Identity and Access Management, we see firsthand how a modern, independent, and interoperable Identity solution powers stronger security and an elevated experience for an organization’s workforce and its customers. We know that there is more hard work ahead as the administration moves to implement this strategy. But Okta looks forward to continuing our partnership with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments and private-sector organizations across industries to realize the great impact that improving our cybersecurity posture can have on the country.
