Welcome, Step 0

By Lon J. Berman, CISSP, RDRP Q. The Risk Management Framework (RMF) life cycle is comprised of how many steps? A. Oh, that’s easy, it’s six. Well … not so fast. As you probably know, the Risk Management Framework (RMF) has always been described as a six step process, to wit: 1-Categorize, 2- Select, 3-Implement,…

NIST Rev. 5 Supplemental Materials

By Kathryn Daily, CISSP, CAP, RDRP Back in September of last year (2020), NIST finally published the final version of Special Publication 800-53 Revision 5. Most notably, this revision incorporated privacy considerations in the security controls themselves rather than having separate control families for the privacy controls (e.g., AR, AP, IP, etc.). This is a…

DFARS Compliance with CMMC/NIST SP 800-171

By Marilyn Fritz, CISSP, CISA, ITIL, PMP The new DFARS Interim Rule that went into effect November 30, 2020 is a game changer for any entities that have or are pursuing Defense Industrial Base (DIB) contracts or subcontracts. Prior to the new Interim Rule, contractors and sub-contractors could self-attest that they met DoD cybersecurity requirements…