Tag Archive for: DoD

What You Need to Know About CMMC Certification

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Supply Chain Brain | October 7, 2020

As the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) nears full implementation, affected organizations are scurrying to ensure they’ll pass the certification process.

The goal is simple: organizations must meet minimum cybersecurity standards, and in doing so, they do their part to improve national security. The stakes are extraordinarily high for the estimated 300,000 defense industrial base (DIB) organizations which will soon need to be certified to one of the five CMMC levels to be eligible to be awarded a federal contract. Simply stated: no certification, no contract. From the perspective of the U.S. Government and the Department of Defense, the stakes have always been high since the DIB plays such a critical role in the defense of our nation. The only way to ensure the protection of our data and the integrity of the supply chain is to hold industry to a higher standard.

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Supporting the DoD’s Defend Forward Initiative

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What is Defend Forward?

The DoD’s Defend Forward operational concept has been rolling out over the past few years. Policy makers and cyber defenders in government realized that, as the situation in Afghanistan led directly to the rise of Al-Qaeda and the 9-11 attacks, the situation in cyberspace was going to lead to crippling cyber-attack of similar power.

However, unlike Afghanistan, where a power vacuum was created by the withdrawal of the Soviet Union, the Internet was designed from the outset to be open. By design, there are no police; no organization with the authority with the power to punish bad actors. The cavalry are stuck in the fort.

Something had to change.

Cyber Protection Teams (CPTs) working at the Department of Defense (DOD) were restricted to preparing for and responding to attacks on their own network. Hacktivists, cyber criminals, and nation state adversaries were not restricted in the same way. This unequal playing field was addressed by removing the restriction on CPTs and allowing them to operate, if asked, in the networks of foreign countries. This new operational concept is called Defend Forward.

The goal of Defend Forward is to move out into cyberspace and inflict costs on bad actors, especially other nation states. As most adversary cyber teams tend to use and reuse the same tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), finding malware on foreign networks and publicizing it forces those cyber attackers to create new methods. This takes time, effort and money. By shining a light on these playbooks, friendly nations, other parts of government and civilians will know what to look for, further disrupting cyber attacked operations. Lastly, this serves as a signal to enemies that we know about their procedures and puts them on the defensive.

 

How Do We Protect the Base?

While Defending Forward is off to a promising start, it is only a part of the ongoing cyber war. A “whole – nation” effort is needed –involving both government and industry. Only 10% of the critical infrastructure networks in the U.S. are controlled by our government. Industry needs to do its part and protect the home base.

We need to know our networks better than the attackers do. We need to make sure our networks are set up securely as we intended. We need to find and mitigate the highest risk issues first. Our complex networks make this very hard to do without technical support.

RedSeal’s cyber terrain analytics platform and professional services help all organizations improve their resilience to security events by understanding what’s on their networks, how it’s all connected, and the associated risk. RedSeal verifies that network devices are securely configured; validates network segmentation policies; and continuously monitors compliance with policies and regulations. RedSeal continually checks to see if a network’s segmentation is working as designed, ranks end point vulnerabilities in order of risk, and adds knowledge of your network to determine how accessible the vulnerability is to untrusted networks and what it will expose if compromised.

Click here to view the webinar titled, “Defend Forward, But Protect Your Base” with Wayne Lloyd, RedSeal Federal CTO and Mike Lloyd, RedSeal CTO.

Contact us for more information about how RedSeal can help you support our cyber protection teams.

Cyber Protection Team Workshop

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Recently, I was privileged to spend half a day with some of our nation’s finest cyber warriors at a RedSeal workshop. Early in the morning, members of various DoD Cyber Protection Teams (CPTs) gathered around a u-shaped table in Columbia, Maryland.

The workshop showcases how CPTs use RedSeal every day to secure cyber terrain and support the warfighter’s mission. This was the fourth workshop that RedSeal has organized this year.

RedSeal in a simulated real world mission environment

The workshop’s mission concept is to validate that a secure network for a THAAD antimissile battalion had been deployed in South Korea. For the workshop, we say that an initial network survey has been completed on the deployed THAAD system and we are in phase two of a CPT mission called Secure. In this phase, the teams must verify that the network — primarily the key battery line IT systems — is secure.

Further, verifying that the THAAD system’s key cyber terrain is secure is of paramount importance to protect alliance forces in South Korea. Intelligence indicates a high probability of a kinetic war breaking out on the Korean peninsula soon. Cyber activity penetrating military C2 and civilian infrastructure would be a precursor to a shooting war.

RedSeal for Network Mapping and Automation

First, the attendees are shown how RedSeal ingests all the network information in a matter of hours, using configuration files. Everyone could see that manually attempting this process would be a time-consuming folly. It would take years to scan thousands of lines of code in each config file, multiplied by hundreds and thousands of devices.

RedSeal automates this process for CPTs and generates an accurate, up-to-date network model.

Second, the attendees are shown that RedSeal’s network topology map is not static but can be moved around and adjusted. All the network information can be organized into an easy and clear graphic representation of the devices and how they connect with each other.

When attendees ask if this is a scanning tool that will jam up their networks, we explain that there isn’t any scanning at all.

Then, we show detailed path results that look like a subway map of connected devices. One attendee said, “RedSeal shows me all the hops on the path from device to device.”

Visualizing cyber terrain serves an important role. CPTs often find themselves in debates with network operators about the significance of vulnerabilities. RedSeal provides a single source of truth that everyone can agree on.

Another attendee commented, “Now that I’m done worrying about access control, I’m worrying about threats. I can focus on higher level questions like, how are they using payloads against us?”

We discuss the value of using RedSeal to make higher-level informed decisions and to create hypotheticals around changes to the network. This allows accurate risk management of proposed network changes, even “temporary” changes.

RedSeal has been deployed successfully by active CPTs in every service branch. Our team looks forward to supporting each and every CPT as it conducts its important mission.

Want to learn more about RedSeal’s support of CPTs and how it will improve your agency’s digital resilience? Click here to set up your free trial of RedSeal and choose the better way.

RedSeal and DHS CDM DEFEND

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This year, the big news in government cybersecurity is the DHS CDM DEFEND program and task orders being announced by various federal departments. The DHS CDM DEFEND, which stands for Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Dynamic and Evolving Federal Enterprise Network Defense, task orders are awarded under the General Services Administration’s Alliant 1 Unrestricted contract. GSA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) jointly run CDM to secure civilian agency “.gov” networks from cyber attacks.

RedSeal and Government Cybersecurity

RedSeal has a history of support for federal government cybersecurity initiatives. The company’s network modeling and risk scoring platform is installed in numerous defense, intelligence, and civilian organizations for continuous monitoring.

At the highest level, RedSeal delivers three core security controls:

  • Visibility: Automated network mapping and situational awareness
  • Verification: Continuous comparison of network security architecture against desired posture
  • Prioritization: Analysis of vulnerability scan data and network architecture to identify the highest risk vulnerabilities that must be remediated immediately

These controls apply to both legacy deployments and new architectures. In legacy deployments, RedSeal allows you to understand the existing environment and identify security control gaps. In new architectures, RedSeal validates that the network is built and operated as designed. And in all situations, RedSeal increases the value of scanning and penetration testing by prioritizing those vulnerabilities that are the most dangerous cybersecurity threats – based on how each network is put together.

The objective of the DHS CDM DEFEND program is to discover, assess and plan for 100% agency network coverage and provide context for prioritizing the closure of coverage gaps. Winners of task orders must discover all networked assets in an agency – including perimeter, cloud and mobile environments. Plus, they must develop a plan to protect all environments within six months of work commencing, and on a continuous basis after implementation. What’s more, merely visualizing what’s on the network isn’t enough, but vendors must prioritize fixing the worst problems first.


How Does RedSeal Fit with DHS CDM DEFEND Solution Requirements?

RedSeal supports six of the eight DHS CDM DEFEND solution requirements.

Hardware Asset Management: RedSeal’s complete network map and network device inventory provides a framework for hardware inventory processes and discovery. The solution also provides a complete inventory of in-scope Layer 2 and Layer 3 network devices.

Configuration Settings Management: RedSeal automatically analyzes individual device configurations to see if they are secure. This includes password policies for firewalls, routers, load balancers, and wireless controllers, services enabled, logical port configurations, and networking parameters. You can also create custom checks and be notified automatically about any deviations from baselines.

Vulnerability Management: At the highest level, vulnerability management consists of two tasks: vulnerability scanning and remediation. RedSeal can determine if you have any gaps in your vulnerability scan coverage and identify the device blocking it. In addition, RedSeal has a unique ability to prioritize remediation by identifying the vulnerabilities that pose the highest risk—in each network. RedSeal combines results from top scanners (such as Rapid7 InsightVM, Tenable Nessus, and Qualys) and centralizes scoring and prioritization. Then, it overlays its detailed knowledge of all network paths to prioritize the specific systems and vulnerabilities that could be used to do the most damage if they were exploited. Without this, organizations waste huge amounts of time remediating “high priority” vulnerabilities that could wait, because the potential damage from an exploit is very limited. And they ignore “low priority” vulnerabilities that are actually dangerous because they can be used to pivot into higher value targets in a network.

Boundary Protection: Effective boundary protections are typically based on network architecture and access policies on routers, switches and firewalls. In practice, it is extremely difficult to operationalize this control, especially in multi-vendor environments. However, RedSeal Is able to analyze networks continuously and evaluate possible connectivity against desired policy. This enables even the largest organizations to implement boundary protections on multi-vendor networks in an operationally efficient manner. And this, in turn, makes it realistic to implement multi-layer segmentation policies, where assets can be isolated from the rest of the internal network to better protect sensitive data, and limit the ability of malware to spread after initial compromise.

Incident Response: Many information sources and technical disciplines must work in concert for effective incident response. Once an indicator of compromise is identified by a SIEM, RedSeal brings network topology and reachability information to help determine how significant the risk is and what systems may be at risk. Normally this is a manual and time-consuming process, relying on traceroutes and network maps that are often out of date. Staff must comb through configurations to piece together the potential malware exploit paths. This delays an organization’s ability to respond appropriately to the event, increasing both risk and the eventual overall damage. RedSeal automates this entire network investigation process, providing incident response teams with accurate information about network exploitation paths so their response can be quicker and more focused.

 

  RedSeal Capabilities
CDM DEFEND Requirements Hardware Config Vuln Mgmt Boundary Response
Rapid Assessment Yes Yes Yes
Boundary Architecture Changes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Evaluate multiple CDM states Yes
Vuln Mgmt and Triage Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Change Control & L2/L3 Auditing Yes Yes Yes Yes
Incident Response Yes Yes Yes Yes

 

Summary

The federal government’s DHS CDM DEFEND program is a response to today’s cybersecurity reality. By encouraging organizations to rely less on auditing static preventive measures but instead on implementing CDM, the program better positions agencies to ensure their defenses are well established at all times. The program also encourages agencies to put in place procedures to detect, evaluate, and respond to incidents, no matter when they occur.

RedSeal provides a substantial contribution to the CDM framework by delivering a unique control set for boundary protection, situational awareness, vulnerability mitigation prioritization, and configuration management.

RedSeal is a “must-have” part of any CDM team currently bidding for DHS CDM DEFEND task orders.

Want to learn more about RedSeal’s integration with cybersecurity tools and its integral part of any CDM program? Click here to connect with RedSeal today.

JIE-READY: A roadmap

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The United States Department of Defense Joint Information Environment (JIE) began to take shape in 2010, as part of efficiency initiatives to consolidate Defense IT infrastructure and generate savings, provide full situational awareness across all defense networks, and improve the Department’s ability to share information between the services and with its industry partners and other government agencies.  While full capabilities are not expected to be realized until the 2016-2020 timeframe, DoD is already hard at work with industry to procure and configure IT in a more secure fashion and the first demonstration of JIE will take place in Europe this year, hosted by the U.S. European Command. Many organizations are asking themselves if they are JIE-ready, yet what exactly does this mean?

​jieintro1 RedSeal Networks is playing a key part in the security component of the JIE program. Part of the JIE program is to migrate to a Single Security Architecture (SSA). The deployment of this SSA will be realized through what is commonly referred to as Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS). Within these stacks are integrated technology components that will provide comprehensive security to the JIE environment. The development and deployment of JRSS along with the overall JIE program will take a significant effort of consolidation and migration to realize the financial and organizational benefits. RedSeal’s role in this effort is recognized through four key use cases of the RedSeal Networks platform.

The four key areas where the RedSeal platform will have impact with respect to JIE are aligned with the phases of JRSS development and can be seen as:

  • Model and visualize the current state of your complex legacy networks and security infrastructure including calculating every possible internal and external attack path
  • Ensure defense in depth with tiers/enclaves are efficient and effective
  • Visualize the completed JIE infrastructure before migration even begins
  • Create artifacts for JIE ATO and IA certifications

Our next blog post will discuss how to model and visualize legacy environments.