September 21, 2024 at 08:53AM
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released the FCEB Operational Cybersecurity Alignment (FOCAL) plan to synchronize and strengthen federal agencies’ cyber defenses. Despite variations in defense capabilities, the plan aims to reduce cyber-risk by aligning agencies and providing tactical guidance. Challenges include resource allocation and collaboration among diverse agency teams.
Based on the meeting notes, the key takeaways are:
1. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released the Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) Operational Cybersecurity Alignment (FOCAL) plan to enhance the collective operational defense capabilities of federal agencies and reduce cyber risks.
2. The plan aims to achieve more synchronized and robust cyber defenses, improved communications, and better agility and resilience in the federal government.
3. FOCAL provides both broad organizing concepts for federal cybersecurity and tactical guidance for agencies to implement in areas such as asset management, vulnerability management, defensible architecture, cyber supply chain risk management, and incident response.
4. While the essential components of FOCAL are considered strong, there are challenges in deploying and implementing the technologies and processes due to the need for staff, knowledge, and skills in agency IT teams. Additionally, the scale of security tools required poses a potential problem for agency security teams.
5. The focus on patching and vulnerability management is crucial, but difficult to implement at scale, and about a third of agency assets are smart devices, Internet of Things, operational technology, and embedded devices, which often lack security compliance.
Overall, the FOCAL plan aims to address the challenges of cybersecurity disparities and vulnerabilities within federal agencies, but the successful implementation poses significant challenges in terms of resource allocation and cultural differences across the diverse and independent agencies.