Kristen Smith 
Federal agencies should focus on strengthening three core cybersecurity functions — zero trust, vulnerability management and incident response — as artificial intelligence accelerates the pace and scale of cyberthreats, according to Victor Foulk, vice president of emerging technologies at CGI Federal.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Foulk said AI is enabling adversaries to identify and exploit vulnerabilities faster, turning cybersecurity into a speed-driven operational challenge rather than a strategic shift.
Why Is Zero Trust Critical?
Foulk pointed to zero trust as the most immediate way to reduce risk, particularly as AI-driven attacks exploit weak identity controls and network segmentation.
By enforcing strict identity verification and separating access across systems, zero trust limits the number of reachable targets and reduces the potential impact of a breach. It also improves visibility, making it easier to detect and contain intrusions early.
How Should Agencies Approach Vulnerability Management?
AI is compressing the timeline between discovering a vulnerability and exploiting it, making rapid prioritization essential.
Foulk said agencies should focus on identifying which vulnerabilities pose real risk based on their environment, rather than attempting to remediate everything. This includes evaluating exposure, access paths and privilege levels.
He added that when patching is delayed, agencies should rely on compensating controls such as segmentation, access restrictions and targeted monitoring to mitigate risk.
What Needs to Change in Incident Response?
Incident response must operate faster and with greater precision through automation to prevent threats from escalating.
Foulk’s emphasized the importance of early containment, clear response protocols and predefined authorities, noting that agencies should balance speed with accuracy to avoid reacting to false signals while ensuring real threats are addressed quickly.
Foulk’s focus on speed and coordination aligns with his previous remarks on the importance of data visibility, which enables faster decision-making and more effective automation while maintaining human oversight in critical actions.
