What is NIST Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity?

NERC CIP featured

With the more recent threats and attacks we’ve seen in both the Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds hacks, the question of infrastructure security is firmly in the collective consciousness. With President Biden’s Executive Order focusing executive resources to beef up cybersecurity, the efforts of the government are turning towards addressing some of the gaps that have been around for the past few years. 

This reality calls for private contractors and any business with infrastructure-critical services in areas like energy, defense, financial services or other areas to take the right steps to address these issues. Fortunately, the NIST Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity provides a thorough risk assessment framework to help. 

 

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Core StateRAMP Reports for Provider Certification

Stateramp reports security featured

StateRAMP, like any other compliance framework, includes several reports to document a provider’s progress through certification for the Program Management Office (PMO). As of February 2021, however, the PMO is still spinning up its resources and and StateRAMP reports templates. As such, many required report templates are slated for availability on the StateRAMP website but are as of yet not published. 

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SolarWinds and SUNBURST: The Technical Risks of State-Sponsored Terrorism

solarwinds hack bug

The news cycle for anyone connected with cybersecurity has been dominated by information regarding the SolarWinds hack. This breach, starting with a single cloud and security provider, has now become a national emergency as more and more private institutions have become infected with potentially dangerous results.

As this situation unfolds, we wanted to touch base and provide background into the underlying methods and strategies used by the hackers. Following that, you can see how the attacks took place not just because of vulnerabilities in a system, but through an interconnected network of systems made vulnerable by one vendor. Finally, we provide some basic concepts to consider for your company’s security moving forward. 

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