Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

ISO 27001 is one of the most complex security frameworks commonly in use around the world. That complexity comes from the way it is designed: not as a checklist to follow, but rather as a series of guidelines to achieve. The difference between those two things is stark, even if it doesn’t sound like it. The way ISO 27001 works is that you develop an ISMS, or Information Security Management System.

Part of the process of achieving certification with CMMC is undergoing an audit to validate your security posture across all of the relevant security controls. This can’t be done internally; part of maintaining a valid security framework is using third-party assessors to do the validation, to ensure an unbiased and equitable evaluation, no matter who the client is.

The government doesn’t often move quickly, but when it moves, the changes it makes tend to have long-term and far-reaching ripple effects throughout business and industry. That’s true whether it’s a policy decision, a financial decision, or a restructuring of an organization, and it will always be true at the scale the federal government operates. One recent change in the world of government cybersecurity is a change to how FedRAMP operates.

Cloud service providers looking to work with the government, whether it’s at the state and local level or at the federal level, will have to adhere to certain cybersecurity standards. At the federal level, the program is called FedRAMP: the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, CMMC, is a critical part of ensuring robust and equal information security from top to bottom throughout the Department of Defense’s supply chain. A common misconception about CMMC, stemming from previous pre-CMMC security, is that it primarily applies to prime contractors and big businesses.

Most of the time on the Ignyte blog, we talk about overarching security frameworks like FedRAMP, CMMC, and ISO 27001. Sometimes, though, it’s worth digging deeper into smaller-scale elements of these frameworks. Today’s target is ISO 27017, the ISO/IEC publication focusing on cloud service security. What does this document entail, who needs to use it, and what does compliance involve? Let’s discuss.

FedRAMP has strict requirements for the security of the companies looking to earn their certification. Among the many requirements you need to navigate are tests from your C3PAO, simulating malicious actors and common threat vectors. In order to understand what you need to do to pass, it’s worth going over what penetration testing is, what red teaming is, what the scope of FedRAMP pen testing includes, and what the rules of engagement encompass.

Here at Ignyte, we talk a lot about the major governmental cybersecurity frameworks like FedRAMP and CMMC or the international framework ISO 27001. What we don’t talk about as much – but which is no less important – are smaller-scale or more limited frameworks. SOC is one such framework, and it’s extremely important for those who need it. There’s also a lot of confusion surrounding it, both in business and as a layperson. What is SOC for?

While we talk a lot on this site about the US Government’s various cybersecurity frameworks, like FedRAMP and CMMC, there’s one significant framework that deserves just as much attention: ISO 27001. ISO 27001, being an ISO standard, is an international framework for cybersecurity divorced from any one country’s government.

Seeking a FedRAMP authority to operate is a critical part of any cloud service looking to work with the government in an official capacity. It’s required if you are going to handle controlled unclassified information on behalf of the government or its contractors, and since the requirements trickle down, you don’t even necessarily have to be part of the government’s prime contractors to need your ATO.