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Cisco Duo Strengthens Government Zero Trust by Securing the Identity Pillar

Cisco

Business Honor
08 July, 2025

Cisco Duo simplifies Zero Trust implementation, ensuring secure identity management for government agencies.

Zero Trust is becoming increasingly popular as the new standard for securing government networks and data, offering a more powerful alternative to perimeter-based security. In Zero Trust, users are continuously authenticated even after their initial security clearance, and only those who are authorized for specific resources according to their work roles have access. This approach diminishes the level of damage in the case of a security breach.

Though state governments increasingly recognize Zero Trust as the top option for safeguarding sensitive information, making the journey to its implementation is overwhelming. It's not simply a three-step process, but a multi-step endeavor that involves hardening multiple crucial pillars: identity, devices, network, applications, and data. Cisco Duo is stepping in to simplify this journey, especially by hardening the identity pillar of Zero Trust architecture.

Lying at the heart of Cisco Duo is its multi-factor authentication (MFA) system, whereby users must provide more than a password to access resources. Duo supports multiple forms of authentication, including biometric authentication, security tokens, one-time passcodes, and passwords. This ensures that only authenticated users have access to sensitive systems, which may be on-premise or remote.

Ease of use for Duo is yet another best part. Admins can conveniently set identity authentication policies based on user role or the resources they must have access to. Its self-enrollment capability makes it easy to onboard and enroll users in MFA with little hassle, even via their phone.

By addressing identity matters first, Cisco Duo lays a good foundation upon which Zero Trust designs can be erected. With its lovely yet powerful platform, agencies can not only authenticate identities but also establish a secure foundation upon which other components of Zero Trust can be built. Cisco Duo is serving as a valuable asset in government, maintaining strict security intact while the agencies continue to work on their Zero Trust programs.