AWS Public Sector Blog

Tag: AWS Config

What US federal customers need to know about memorandum M-21-31

The US Office of Management and Budget published M-21-31, a memorandum for federal government agencies to define event logging requirements related to cybersecurity incidents. These guidelines aim to support the detection, investigation, and remediation of cyber incidents on federal information systems. The memorandum defines various event logging (EL) tiers and the log data that must be captured for various log categories. Learn the services from AWS that have been called out explicitly in the memorandum for logging and retention requirements at the EL1 level, and the resources you can use to set up these services to capture the required log data.

AWS announces low-to-no cost security services for federal political campaigns and committees

It is essential for election campaigns and committees to have access to the latest security services so they can mitigate risks against security threats at minimal cost. To support this, AWS is collaborating with Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC) to offer more than 20 cybersecurity-related AWS services for low-to-no cost to all active and registered national party committees and federal candidate committees for the US House and US Senate midterm elections that are eligible in accordance with DDC and Federal Election Commission (FEC) criteria.

Navigating ISM and Essential Eight compliance with AWS Config for Australian government agencies

To help our Australian customers, AWS provides pre-built conformance packs for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Essential Eight Maturity Model and the ACSC Information Security Manual (ISM). The ACSC’s Essential Eight was first published in 2017 and is a set of prioritised security mitigation strategies designed to help protect organisations against various security threats. In this blog post, I walk you through how to set up a conformance pack in AWS Config that is designed to help you implement and track the ASCS Essential Eight model.

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Building your Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) strategy using cloud technologies

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) released an interim rule, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: Assessing Contractor Implementation of Cybersecurity Requirements (DFARS Case 2019–D041), which includes NIST SP 800-171 and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) assessment methodology and requirements. Organizations have been planning for CMMC, and with the release of this interim rule, are now beginning to prepare and build strategy for CMMC compliance. Learn how you can build your CMMC strategy using cloud technologies.

Public sector security serverless - Darren House

How public sector security teams can use serverless technologies to improve outcomes

Serverless applications are typically discreet pieces of code that customers can use to manage security-related processes or stitch together multiple AWS services to solve a larger problem. They allow customers to build and run applications and services without dealing with infrastructure management tasks such as server or cluster provisioning, patching, operating system maintenance, and capacity provisioning. In this blog, I explain the serverless computing model, the Serverless Application Repository (SAR), solution constructs and implementations, why they matter to our government customers, and how they can use them to solve common problems.

Self-Service Security Assessment with ransomware analysis modules

Assess your security posture to identify and remediate security gaps susceptible to ransomware

As government agencies and public sector organizations modernize their IT and migrate to the AWS Cloud, the ability to gain a full, clear view of the security of their environments is a primary challenge they experience. This lack of visibility leads to blind spots and gaps in their security posture, leaving opportunity for security issues to arise. As a result, AWS developed a new open source Self-Service Security Assessment (with ransomware analysis modules) tool that provides customers with a point-in-time assessment to quickly gain valuable insights into the security posture of their AWS account.

FedRAMP workbook automation

Automating creation of a FedRAMP Integrated Inventory Workbook

Did you know AWS can help deliver an automated solution for creating the FedRAMP Integrated Inventory Workbook? This workbook needs to be updated and submitted to the FedRAMP Project Management Office (PMO) monthly for continuous monitoring. Automating this workbook saves manual work hours. Any customer going through the FedRAMP authorization process can leverage this workbook. Understand how to gather an inventory of AWS resources from AWS Config data to create the FedRAMP Integrated Inventory Workbook.

Building a cloud-specific incident response plan

In order for your organization to be prepared before a security event occurs, there are unique security visibility, and automation controls that AWS provides. Incident response does not only have to be reactive. With the cloud, your ability to proactively detect, react, and recover can be easier, faster, cheaper, and more effective. What is an […]