Delivering Modernized Security for Government Agencies: The Vital Role of FedRAMP

With an increasing number of organizations in the U.S. public sector and government relying on cloud services and interconnected systems, the need for comprehensive security to safeguard sensitive information and the ability for vendors to deliver flexible, simple and easy-to-manage solutions is mission critical.

In 2022, the federal government reported over 30,000 cybersecurity incidents, and a 2023 study by the Ponemon Institute found that the average cost of a data breach for a U.S. federal agency was $5.04 million, reaching an all-time high. At Cisco, we have been helping government agencies of all sizes address their unique security and compliance challenge for decades. We understand the latest threats and how trends can affect an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. The importance of resilient and accessible cybersecurity cannot be overstated.

I’m proud of our continued progress with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), and what we’ve achieved to connect and protect our government agencies and the U.S. public sector.

Our commitment to delivering modernized security

The Cisco Security Cloud aims to deliver an open, integrated security platform for multi-cloud environments, and Cisco is committed to helping customers meet stringent federal requirements while enhancing security, reducing risks and speeding up deployment. The following three Cisco Security products have met or are undergoing the FedRAMP authorization process:

Cisco Umbrella for Government

Most recently, Cisco Umbrella for Government has achieved the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program FedRAMP Moderate Authority to Operate (ATO). As government and public sector agencies shift to hybrid work models and multicloud application strategies, Cisco Umbrella for Government meets the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) mandate for Protective DNS. Adding Umbrella DNS-layer security provides visibility to quickly block threats, protecting critical infrastructure, users and devices no matter whether they are located, in the office or remote. It also enables federal agencies to:

Reduce security complexity: This builds on DNS-layer security.  Secure Internet Gateway (SIG), secure web gateway, cloud-delivered firewall with Snort 3.0 IPS — along with CASB and DLP — provide comprehensive protection against cyber threats and unify multiple security functions into a single cloud-delivered solution managed from a single web interface, reducing security complexity. Agencies can flexibly add additional layers of security defenses over time that are customized to their needs.

Better detect malicious activity and anticipate future attacks: Cisco Umbrella for Government utilizes statistical models, machine learning algorithms, and enormous volumes of threat intelligence data from Cisco Talos, one of the world’s largest non-government threat intelligence teams. Umbrella for Government uses this intelligence to map a holistic view of the threat landscape, seeing the relationships between malware, domains, and networks across the internet and learning from internet activity patterns to automatically identify attacker infrastructure being staged for the next threat.

The commercial version of Cisco Umbrella is a mature, proven, and extensively validated solution trusted by over 30,000 customers and serves as the foundation for Umbrella for Government. Its advanced protection significantly uplevels government cybersecurity, offering comprehensive protection against phishing, malware, ransomware. It can also prevent data loss from cyberattacks and unsanctioned applications like social media platforms or Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence), all while being compliant with government cybersecurity mandates like FedRAMP, Protective DNS, Trusted Internet Connections (TIC 3.0), Executive Order 14028 and OMB Memo M-22-09.

Cisco Duo for Government

Cisco offers two Duo FedRAMP Authorized editions that deliver strong cloud-based authentication and device visibility (built on zero trust principles) tailored to the demands of public sector organizations. Duo Federal MFA and Duo Federal Access provide secure application access to ensure only trusted users and trusted devices can access protected applications.

Better protection against unauthorized access: Federal MFA offers agencies federal-grade authentication, protecting applications and data against unauthorized access due to credential theft by verifying users’ identities before allowing them to access data. If you can log into an application or a system over the internet, it should be protected with more than just a username and password. Connections like VPN, SSH and RDP are gateways to a corporate network and require added layers of protection. The Federal MFA solution provides a clear picture of the users and devices that are trying to access your network.

Stronger access control policies: Federal Access includes stronger role-based and location-based access policies, biometric authentication enforcement, allowing or denying access based on device hygiene and notifying users to self-remediate out-of-date devices. It adds policy and control over which users, devices and networks are permitted to access organizations applications.

Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO)

CDO is a cloud-based management solution that simplifies and centrally manages elements of security policy and device configuration across multiple Cisco and cloud-native security platforms:

A unified experience between on-premises and cloud-based firewall: CDO also incorporates the cloud-delivered version of Firewall Management Center (FMC), providing a fully unified experience between on-premises and cloud-based firewall management, expanding management of policy and configuration to:

Easy and fast set up: CDO allows customers toonboard and start managing hundreds of devices within hours.  Flexibility and scale are attributes of the Cisco open API as well as being a cloud technology.  It does not matter whether an organization has 5 or 5000 devices. CDO provides network operations teams with the ability to reduce time spent managing and maintaining security devices, enabling them to focus on what is most important and what is the biggest risk.

Why FedRAMP matters

In 2018, the federal government introduced the Cloud Smart strategy, a long-term vision for IT modernization that the Federal enterprise needs to provide enhanced security. It is founded on three key pillars of successful cloud adoption: security, procurement and workforce. These elements are crucial for maintaining a high level of security while promoting efficiency, consistency and innovation. FedRAMP provides a standardized approach to security assessments and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services, equipping agencies and vendors with the necessary framework and actionable information to implement.

For customers, FedRAMP reduces the burden of assessing the security of each cloud service independently. This not only saves time but also contributes to cost efficiency, as agencies can leverage the security assessments conducted by the FedRAMP program.

For vendors, the FedRAMP authorization process is rigorous. Achieving authorization means organizations:

• Meet the highest security and reliability requirements.
• Meet a standardized set of security controls, making it easier to integrate solutions across a range of government agencies.
• Continuously monitor requirements and maintain high security standards to quickly identify and fix potential vulnerabilities.
• Receive third-party validation of best-in-class security practices, increasing trust and credibility.

FedRAMP serves as a differentiator, providing a more secure environment for federal agencies, protecting sensitive data from potential threats and cyberattacks and enabling agencies to adopt cloud services with confidence.

Our continued commitment

Taking a customer-centric approach to all things we do, our focus remains on how we can meet market demands and deliver outcomes for our U.S. public sector and government agency customers by:

Making purchasing easy: Utilizing an enterprise agreement (EA) to purchase our FedRAMP solutions results in significant cost savings and predictable spending for the government agencies and U.S. public sector customers. EAs also simplify the procurement process by providing a single, streamlined contract for easier management and compliance with agency licensing terms and conditions.

Expanding FedRAMP authorization: The challenges for organizations are only becoming greater as the world of hybrid work continues to add another layer of complexity to the threat landscape. Our goal is to help customers:

• Defend against a top threat vector — email.
• Manage security across public and private clouds from one place.
• Expand zero trust principles in a converged solution, enforcing granular security policies and enabling work from anywhere.

Looking ahead, we will focus on expanding our FedRAMP Authorized products and helping agencies tackle these challenges head on.

Stay tuned on more from us as we continue to deliver some of the most exciting innovation areas for Cisco and our U.S. public sector and government customers, empowering a hybrid work environment built on integrated cloud-ready networks and industry-leading security.

Additional resources

Share: