The Internal Revenue Service is one of the largest and most essential federal government agencies… which means that there is a lot of opportunity for third-party contractors and managed service providers to offer products to support its mission. It also means that these contractors will be expected to adhere to security standards, specifically those outlined in IRS 1075. 

Fortunately, IRS 1075 is aligned with other federal standards, all of which provide a sound security footing and potential to pivot services to other government agencies. Here, we’ll discuss some overlap between IRS 1075 and federal standards, specifically those related to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). 

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FISMA is one of the foundational cybersecurity documents in the U.S. government. Its passage in 2002 and subsequent update in 2014 have defined the security landscape for federal IT systems and associated contractors. 

However, a one-two punch from Congress and the President has changed things again. With recent cyber threats causing major damage to public and private resources, an Executive Order from the Office of the President, coupled with updates implemented by Congress, has shaped, directly or indirectly, the implementation of FISMA.

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There are several compliance standards for federal and defense cybersecurity. CMMC, FedRAMP, the Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and the Risk Management Framework (RMF) all serve critical functions in protecting government IT systems and associated vendor products and services.

Behind all of these frameworks are crucial security publications, each one serving a particular purpose in defining the practices, controls and procedures that organizations can use to meet their compliance demands. We’ve previously covered such documents as NIST 800-53 and NIST 800-171, showing how these documents play a role in national cyber defense.

In this article, we’ll discuss two more guidelines: Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 199 and FIPS 200.

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