CISA Working More Closely With Agencies After Biden Cyber Executive Order

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is working to increase the visibility of threats to networks across the federal government through its Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program. Richard Grabowski, program manager for the effort, said work has been expanded to cover vulnerability detection and response in compliance with President Joe Biden’s cybersecurity executive order in May 2021, FedScoop reported Friday.

Grabowski recounted that the program was largely focused on cyber hygiene and risk management prior to the President’s EO. With the EO, the agency is now required to ensure object-level data flows so that CISA can proactively handle advanced threats.

The official told FedScoop that the Biden directive represents a positive change because it allows CISA to work more collaboratively on specific incidents with agencies and provide better guidance. Agencies had 75 days from the issuance of the executive order on May 12, 2021, to sign memoranda of agreement with CISA, but 95 percent complied ahead of the President’s deadline.

Most agencies have already deployed their CDM dashboards, a testament to the program’s strong support from the federal sector, Grabowski said.

The CDM program is further encouraging agencies to invest in asset management capabilities because many are experiencing data fidelity and resource problems while attempting to manually implement Binding Operational Directive 22-01, which requires them to remediate high-risk vulnerabilities from a CISA-managed catalog. Grabowski said CISA wants agency operators to spend less time on manual data calls and more time on operating tools and defending the enterprise.

In light of the recent BODs, CDM made slight adjustments to its Agency-Wide Adaptive Risk Enumeration algorithm, which gives agencies a risk score based on the number and significance of unaddressed vulnerabilities and misconfiguration, Grabowski said.