Government MFA adoption hampered by identity engineer shortfall

Multi-factor authentication implementation has been lagging in certain U.S. government agencies due to the identity engineer shortage in the government, reports FedScoop. Even though identity has been the foundation of the federal zero-trust architecture strategy unveiled earlier this year, it has not become a standalone position but is hidden in "nichey" software engineering roles within the National Institute of Standards and Technology's National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education Workforce Framework instead, according to Uberether President and Solutions Catalyst Matt Topper. "Nobody ever talks about, I want to be an identity engineer. That makes you the best blue teamer because you actually understand how these things work together," Topper added. Meanwhile, CISA identity, credential, and access management expert Grant Dasher noted that cloud and ICAM experts may have become confused with their responsibilities amid the growing usage of cloud and ICAM technology in government agencies. "I think that the number of people in our community who have deep identity expertise is not significant. And they sort of move around between the agencies or, in some cases, retire," said Dasher.