Imagine the pressure and responsibility that comes with protecting sensitive government data from malicious cyber threats. For any chief information security officer (CISO) working for the federal government today, there is no need to imagine – it is the daily reality of the job.
From the Office of Personnel Management breach in 2015 to the large swaths of information exposed from the Democratic National Committee, the cyber threat isn’t hypothetical anymore and must be addressed. In this era of partisanship, the effort to improve cybersecurity has received bipartisan support — a clear message to agencies that this will be extremely important going forward, regardless of political climate.
The added emphasis on cybersecurity means that all high-ranking agency leaders, specifically CISOs, have to know definitively if they are compliant with constantly changing regulations. And the simple reality is many CISOs think they are up to date on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s cybersecurity guidelines, when in fact, they may not be.
So how did this confusing situation occur? President Trump signed an executive order last year detailing new parameters for…
