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James Yeager’s message was that government agencies need private-sector cybersecurity help that is easy to adopt and does not create extra process or integration friction. In a CyberScoop video published April 21, 2023, CrowdStrike’s vice president for public sector and healthcare discussed the challenge of putting Executive Order 14028 into practice, including legacy technology and the move toward zero trust.
What Yeager meant by “frictionless” partnerships
Yeager described partnership as a practical requirement, not just a policy aspiration: agencies cannot tackle cybersecurity modernization alone, but outside assistance must fit into government operations. “We can’t do it alone, we want [partnerships] to be frictionless and easy,” he said in the CyberScoop interview published April 21, 2023.
In this context, friction means the added effort required to adopt and operate a solution—such as difficult integration or burdensome process. Yeager’s point was that private-sector expertise is most useful when agencies can put it to work without creating avoidable barriers. The video is an interview about implementing Executive Order 14028 and zero-trust security, not a current product announcement.
Why legacy systems complicate zero-trust adoption
Zero trust is a security posture agencies must operationalize across their environments. Yeager identified legacy technology embedded in government-wide programs as an expected obstacle. Older systems can make modernization harder because new security measures have to work alongside technology already in use; the interview does not specify a technical migration plan or claim that one product resolves that challenge.
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That distinction matters: a partnership can make tools and expertise available, but agencies still need to fit them to their systems and mission requirements. The practical test of “frictionless” is therefore whether an arrangement helps agencies improve security while minimizing unnecessary adoption and integration work.
What the CISA and CIS example involved
CrowdStrike’s December 1, 2021 account offers a concrete example of the partnership model. The company said it was working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Center for Internet Security (CIS), with CISA to deploy the Falcon platform to secure critical endpoints and workloads. CrowdStrike framed the effort as helping operationalize the president’s cybersecurity executive order.
The account described Falcon as a FedRAMP-authorized endpoint protection platform. It also said CIS’s managed endpoint service included:
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- Managed threat hunting
- Next-generation antivirus
- Asset and software inventory
- USB-device monitoring
- User-account monitoring
- Host-based firewall management
These are capabilities CrowdStrike listed in its 2021 description of the CIS managed service. They illustrate the type of endpoint security and operational support involved; they do not, by themselves, establish how well the program performed or its current scope.
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What the historical adoption figures do—and do not—show
CrowdStrike’s December 2021 account reported that more than one-third of U.S. state governments were then using Falcon, and that CIS’s managed service covered more than 12,000 Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center members and more than 14 million endpoints. CrowdStrike also said it had operated a FedRAMP-authorized government cloud since 2018. These are company-reported figures from 2021, not current adoption totals or an independent comparison of providers.
A separate ExecutiveBiz interview published July 20, 2022 identified Yeager as the company’s public-sector and healthcare vice president and reported that more than 25 states had standardized on CrowdStrike at that time. That, too, is a historical company claim rather than a present-day market measurement.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How agencies can assess a partnership
Yeager’s emphasis on low-friction cooperation is a useful starting point, but an agency evaluating a cybersecurity partnership needs to connect that principle to its own technical and operational needs. The example described by CrowdStrike suggests several questions to examine:
- Integration effort: What work is required to deploy and operate the service in the agency’s existing environment?
- Authorization: What security authorization applies to the specific platform and deployment? CrowdStrike described Falcon as FedRAMP-authorized in its 2021 account; agencies should verify applicable authorization details for the offering they are considering.
- Coverage: Does the service address the agency’s needs for endpoint protection, EDR, threat hunting, inventory, monitoring, or firewall management?
- Deployment scope: Is the arrangement intended for federal use, or for state, local, tribal, and territorial organizations through a managed-service model?
- Operational evidence: What evidence demonstrates outcomes in the agency’s own relevant context? The cited accounts describe partnerships and capabilities, but do not provide a neutral comparative test or establish measured outcomes.
The available examples show how a vendor, a federal agency, and a nonprofit organization can work together around endpoint security. They do not establish that this model is the right fit for every agency or that it removes the complexity of legacy modernization.
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