NIST SP 800-137

From: Federal Times

Aaron Boyd, Federal TImes

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Almost half of the $1.6 billion request will go toward DHS’s two major cybersecurity programs: $274.8 million for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program — a set of tools to identify threats on civilian networks and boot the bad actors — and $471.1 million for Einstein — a sophisticated firewall that, in its third generation, can block known malicious traffic at the ISP level.

Johnson told lawmakers the first phase of CDM — which gives agencies a view of all the assets on their networks — is now on 97 percent of federal systems and the second phase — which monitors and controls user access — will be on all civilian networks by the end of 2016.

From: C4ISR & Networks

Rutrell Yasin

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s National Insider Threat Task Force is working closely with the Department of Defense to figure out how 43 of its components can build solid insider threat programs.

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Larsen noted that successful insider threat programs have senior leadership buy-in and trained insider threat professionals. These professionals need access to data that provides a holistic view of what’s going on within the organization. User activity must be monitored to keep track of what personnel are doing online or if someone is doing massive downloads of documents. Then all of this information needs to be brought together for centralized analysis with other data sources so information can be put into context. “No one flag is going to help identify if you have an issue, it has to be a holistic perspective,” Larsen said.

From: FCW

By Patrick D. Howard

In the timeless words of Yogi Berra, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Federal IT managers know all too well of the challenge of going down two paths. Two of the biggest have been the mandates to migrate to the cloud and to better secure government IT systems through continuous monitoring.

On the one hand, federal agencies have been directed to use a “cloud first” strategy, but they’ve been hesitant because of concerns about the security of their data in the cloud. On the other hand, the successful penetrations of agency networks and systems at the Office of Personnel Management, State Department and elsewhere have given agencies pause about the security of their systems and information.

From: FierceGovernmentIT

IT initiatives and cybersecurity a DHS priority, but NPPD funding takes a hit

By Molly Bernhart Walker

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Other priorities highlighted in the DHS budget request related to the department’s ongoing role in improving cybersecurity of the dot-gov domain as well as new responsibilities under the president’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan, which he unveiled Feb. 9.

The proposal would allow DHS to accelerate its Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation initiative to protect federal networks from cyberattack. The administration requested $274.8 million for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program in fiscal 2017. This will provide hardware, software and services designed to support activities that strengthen the operational security of federal agencies’ and departments’ networks.

From: ComputerWorld [Australia]

What is continuous monitoring?

David Gee

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The problem in enterprises is that we have, metaphorically, a bunch of teenagers working for us and we have no choice but to ‘trust but verify’. These teenagers want to work with corporate data on their mobile devices from every airport and locations that are uncontrolled.

Read Complete Article

From: Security Intelligence

By Sven-Erik Vestergaard

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We are still missing a piece in the puzzle: You must integrate and correlate all the information collected in the different domains in a way that makes sense. The right system should be able to analyze real-time events and store data for forensic purposes.

As mentioned, the nature of cybercrime is changing at an unprecedented pace, and the world has witnessed a stream of major breaches across different industries. Cybercriminals are more organized and collaborative, taking advantage of the latest technologies to improve their tactics. In addition, the explosion of data, increasing adoption of cloud and mobile and the extensive use of social media have made it easier for insiders to unintentionally open the door to new risks such as advanced persistent threats (APTs).

From: GovTechWorks

by Tobias Naegele

Maj. Gen. Sarah Zabel waves her iPhone in an auditorium at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. “I’m not enabled with this device,” she declares. “It’s a great technology at home. But it’s a paperweight in the office.”

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• Single service provider for DISA’s entire mobility infrastructure. DISA issued a request for information (RFI) in late 2015 seeking insight about how a single service provider could take on DoD’s enterprise-wide mobility requirements, from telephony management to ordering, provisioning, sustainment and device management to security, continuous monitoring and reporting.