In Focus: Two-Factor Authentication

After a second major cyber breach at the Office of Personnel Management, Federal CIO Tony Scott ordered a 30-day cyber sprint that required agencies to update their security systems and better protect their data. Preliminary results saw agencies make significant strides to improve cyber efforts. Specifically, OMB announced the following improvements:

• “Federal Civilian agencies increased their use of strong authentication for privileged and unprivileged users from 42 percent to 72 percent — an increase of 30 percent since agencies last reported their quarterly data on Performance.gov.

• “Specifically, Federal civilian agencies increased their use of strong authentication for privileged users from 33 percent to nearly 75 percent — an increase of more than 40 percent since agencies last reported their quarterly data on Performance.gov.

• “Thirteen agencies, or more than half of the largest agencies — including the Departments of Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and the Interior — have implemented the same level of strong authentication for nearly 95 percent of their privileged users.”

Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller on why some agencies made big improvements implementing strong authentication:

“I think what the change here is, where one time they were saying, ‘Use that card; use your smart card, your HSPD-12 card.’ Now OMB says, ‘Listen, we’re going to extend that definition and say what is two-factor authentication and how should you use it?’ So is it just that card? Well, in many cases a lot of agencies said ‘No, it’s not just the card, it’s a way to log on. It’s not just user name and password, but it’s a stronger authentication; a stronger token.’ And I think that’s the difference here.”

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