Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
- ATF is nearing 100% cloud migration
- Key strategies include containerization, automation, and zero trust principles
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has made significant progress in migrating 100% of its systems to the cloud after almost eight years of effort. This migration has allowed ATF to focus on rebuilding its systems from the ground up, implementing a continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD) environment, automation, and modern frameworks. These efforts have enabled ATF to embed automated cybersecurity processes throughout the development lifecycle, including penetration testing, endpoint detection and response tools, and security information and event management logging tools.
ATF is also leveraging containerization and virtualization to enhance system resiliency and implement zero trust principles like least privilege and continuous verification of identity and authorization. The agency is working towards integrating an identity-driven security approach to protect its application programming interfaces. Information sharing among Justice Department components has also played a crucial role in refining ATF’s cybersecurity strategies and sharing lessons learned.
Moving forward, ATF plans to implement the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s software attestation form and eventually work towards Software Bills of Materials. The agency continues to focus on automation, containerization, and zero trust principles to protect its systems and enhance cybersecurity measures in an ever-evolving threat landscape.
