Introduction

While AI stole the show in 2023 in terms of top federal IT trends and themes, cybersecurity — particularly adoption of zero trust — remained an essential focus across the federal government. While agencies are taking varied paths to modernizing their cybersecurity with zero-trust architectures, the Department of Commerce has taken perhaps the most aggressive and streamlined approach in moving to zero trust as one department, rather than letting bureaus and sub-agencies plot their own course. Andre Mendes, the outgoing CIO of the Commerce Department, spoke recently at CyberTalks giving an exclusive, deep-dive into the department’s zero trust transformation. Mendes was joined by Blair Heiserman, CISO & Network Director at NIST, and Ron Ringgold, Commerce’s Director of the Office of CyberSecurity Architecture Services, to share the department’s journey.