Governance, Risk and Compliance

New CISA Guidance Seeks to Standardize Federal Agencies’ Cyber Defenses

Credit: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Increasing variance in federal cybersecurity posture has prompted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to issue its Federal Civilian Executive Branch Operational Cybersecurity Alignment plan, or FOCAL, that aims for increased cyber practice and goals alignment among FCEBs that would advance communications and resilience, SecurityWeek reports.

Under the FOCAL plan, federal agencies have been urged to prioritize asset management, vulnerability management, defensible architecture, cyber supply chain risk management, and incident detection and response, as well as adhere to alignment goals for the focus areas.

"The FOCAL plan is not intended to provide a comprehensive or exhaustive list of everything that an agency or CISA must accomplish. It is designed to focus resources on those actions that substantially advance operational cybersecurity improvements and alignment goals," said CISA, which also touted cyber defense and agility improvements from the better alignment among federal agencies.

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