The traditional threat landscape comprised of conventional IT assets is difficult enough to protect, detect and respond to, but the landscape seems to be quickly expanding beyond traditional IT. Those new domains are operational technology (OT), the internet of things (IoT) and the internet of medical things (IoMT). Devices from non-traditional IT environments are finding their way onto corporate intranets, which can create a shadow IT environment. These devices are unmanaged and some managers don't have a full understanding of the risks associated with these devices. More visibility into these devices could help a chief information security officer (CISO) to understand whether they are acting appropriately.

The new year promises abundant potential for advancement across the broad swath of Federal government IT. Industry leaders shared their predictions for 2020 and beyond with MeriTalk, indicating the path to progress will often track uphill, and around plenty of curves. The big Federal IT issues for 2020 proper? How about multi-cloud architecture, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) adoption, 5G mobile and related security implications, and workforce upskilling, just to name a few. Asked to jump two years into the future and identify the biggest Federal IT areas we should have been looking at more closely in 2020, many of the broader security and infrastructure themes run in a similar vein.