Assessments for both StateRAMP and FedRAMP rely on the 3PAO’s understanding of the systems and people that will interact with a specific government agency. With this knowledge, it’s easier to determine where particular requirements begin and where they end. Across both of these frameworks, this concept is known as the “authorization boundary.” 

The authorization boundary serves as a (sometimes physical, sometimes logical, sometimes administrative) fence that delineates the scope of a cloud system’s operations, setting clear boundaries for where assessment and regulatory requirements begin and end. 

Whether you’re a cloud service provider or a government agency representative, this article will shed light on this essential concept and help you understand its impact on the landscape of cloud security.

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As the Department of Defense (DoD) increasingly leverages cloud services, the need to classify and secure sensitive data has never been more important. To address that need, the DoD’s Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG) provides a comprehensive framework for this, establishing different Impact Levels to classify the appropriateness of a system to handle specific kinds of data. 

If you’re familiar with federal regulations and cloud services, you might already notice that another framework applies to cloud service providers–FedRAMP. That’s why the DoD has guidelines for implementing specific DoD impact level requirements alongside FedRAMP. 

This article discusses the DoD Impact Levels, covering what type of data they encompass and how they interact with FedRAMP.

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The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is a security assessment and authorization program for cloud services used by the federal government. It is designed to ensure that cloud services meet the federal government’s security requirements, and that sensitive government data remains protected. A critical component of the FedRAMP security authorization process is the Security Assessment Report (SAR).

In this blog post, we will examine the importance of the SAR in the FedRAMP security authorization process and provide an in-depth overview of the information that should be included in the report. We will also discuss the benefits of preparing a comprehensive SAR and the consequences of failing a FedRAMP security assessment.

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