The Defense Industrial Base (DIB) supply chain is integral to the security and well-being of our country and includes everyone from government agencies to IT contractors providing software, applications and cloud services to those agencies. It seems obvious that the regulations pertaining to these companies and their products would be more stringent than others, and would include more than simple security measures. That’s where RMF plays a major role. 

In this article, we discuss RMF and how it breaks down into actionable steps. Furthermore, we will discuss the importance of risk management for DoD contractors and why you should work with experts in managing your own risk. 

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Service Organization Control (SOC) audits exist to demonstrate a business or other organization’s readiness in areas like cybersecurity, risk management, data management and other areas. These certifications, especially from SOC 2 audits,  are highly sought-after because they show how dedicated your organization is to the safety and security of user data. These audits, conducted by certified SOC auditors, are intended to be a thorough and rigorous examination of your capabilities and how they promote guiding principles of security, privacy and confidentiality. 

Because of the licensing and authorization structure of the SOC auditing ecosystem, however, it is sometimes difficult to understand the capabilities of an auditor. Even now, some firms advertise SOC 2 audits that take as little as 2-4 weeks! 

This article attempts to dispel the myth of a rapid SOC 2 audit, and why working with trained and dedicated security firms supports better cybersecurity practices. 

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Beginning in 2019, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) began releasing their Risk and Vulnerability Assessment report. This report compiled several months of testing, audits and remediation efforts carried out on behalf of federal entities. Their assessments of these stakeholders helped them identify common attack vectors, the effectiveness of these attack vectors and how IT systems were responding to these attacks. 

Recently, CISA released their report for FY 2020. While some of the information in the report is insightful and informative, much of it is also becoming unfortunate common knowledge.  

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