US federal government agencies will coordinate their cyber defense strategies, under a new plan announced by the US government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Under the scheme, over 100 Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies – US central Government agencies outside defense – will align their “collective operational defense capabilities” to reduce their cyber-risk.
The plan, known as the Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) Operational Cybersecurity Alignment (FOCAL), covers five areas of cybersecurity.
These include asset management, so organizations understand their cyber environment and “interconnected assets;” vulnerability management; defensible architecture so that infrastructure can withstand incidents; cyber supply chain risk management; and incident detection and response.
Unified Approach
According to CISA, each FCEB agency has its own mission, and is supported by its own network and systems architectures. However, CISA believes that a collective approach to cybersecurity will reduce risks both at individual FCEB organizations and when agencies interact with each other and share data.
“Federal…
