TikTok Bans Continue to Spread Across the US as States Follow Suit on Federal Guidance

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have been identified as national security threats by numerous government officials, including FBI Director Christopher Wray. As many States begin to follow the Federal ban on TikTok within government agencies, the urgent question that many security teams are now facing is; “How do I quickly identify where TikTok resides in my environment?”

The Armis platform brings a new level of situational awareness to government security professionals and gives state agencies and universities alike the capabilities to quickly comply with TikTok ban requirements and protect the personal information of American citizens. Agencies will need this in depth awareness due to the minimum requirements of the new TikTok bans, including:

• Remove TikTok from state owned assets
• Monitor for policy violations
• Retain 90 days of network metadata related to TikTok for possible investigation
• Report device name, IP, and location
• Determine asset owner and whether it contains sensitive information
• Plan for remediation of each data set by leadership

Armis helps security teams address the TikTok challenge by helping them quickly determine the following:

• Where the application sits within their mixed environment (IT/OT/IoT/MIoT)
• The types of devices that have TikTok installed, including BYOD
• Connection attempts by each type of device
• Risk level associated with their devices and associated network activity

Network visibility isn’t merely about seeing every asset, although that is a critical first step. It’s about going beyond vulnerability scanning to address the full cyber risk management lifecycle. That means 100 percent visibility to understand asset risk, then securing vulnerable assets identified and thereby controlling the attack surface.  The Armis platform provides the most comprehensive, unified asset inventory and device discovery available today. Our clients  are able to quickly see what each device is (make, model, location, and more) as well as the risks and software vulnerabilities on each device.

Armis expects that in the coming weeks and months, additional states will follow with their own TikTok bans and we are here to partner and empower security teams with the ability to quickly and easily identify and prevent banned applications from introducing new vulnerabilities into critical environments.  The Armis platform delivers the speed and flexibility government agencies need to stay secure in an increasingly dangerous online world.