CyberBalance

News

November 14, 2016
White House tweaks incident reporting in FISMA memo
Shaun Donovan reminded agencies of their obligation to submit FISMA reports by Nov. 10 to the Department of Homeland Security's CyberScope reporting system.
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June 28, 2012
DHS hones dynamic approach to securing agency computer networks
...Agencies then would provide DHS with summary data through the CyberScope tool, giving them a more complete view of the vulnerabilities and threats across government.
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June 27, 2012
Federal Continuous Monitoring Project Unveiled
CyberScope: DHS will summarize progress, correcting known problems across .gov networks and feed status information to a federal security system called CyberScope
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June 5, 2012
Rapid7's Nexpose Receives United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB), CyberScope and Common Criteria EAL 3+ Certifications
As a certified CyberScope solution, Nexpose creates automated security reports and helps agencies to conform to their monthly reporting requirements of key security metrics through the CyberScope application.
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May 30, 2012
Schmidt leaving government in a much different cyber place
Schmidt credits among the biggest success stories during his tenure... includes the use of Cyberscope
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March 16, 2012
Cyber attacks on federal websites drop off
Nineteen of 24 large agencies sent automatic cybersecurity reports through DHS' CyberScope, up from four the previous year.
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March 16, 2012
Federal Agencies Still Lag On FISMA Compliance
More than 75% of the agencies reviewed have successfully demonstrated that they can provide automated data feeds to Cyberscope, a significant increase over the 17% that demonstrated this capability in 2010, according to the OMB's report.
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March 14, 2012
Agencies met 77 percent of cyber requirements in 2011
Agencies had to start using Cyberscope by Nov. 15 of last year. ... OMB said 19 of 24 agencies reported data to Cyberscope in 2011.
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March 14, 2012
Security Remains a Challenge for Telework
The Obama administration said it also plans to collect performance metrics through Cyberscope, the federal repository for gathering FISMA data, ...
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March 3, 2012
Cloud computing's success hinges on rapid certification
Currently, IT managers are expected to report on antivirus updates, remote logins and other network vulnerabilities by pulling live data feeds from all devices into a central Homeland Security inbox called CyberScope.
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January 12, 2011
Get ready to push some paper for cloud moves
Currently, all agencies are expected to report on antivirus updates, remote logins and other vulnerabilities by pulling live data feeds from every IT asset into a central Homeland Security Department inbox, called Cyberscope.
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December 23, 2011
Agencies struggle with continuous monitoring mandate
Agencies also must put all their data in the CyberScope tool run by the Homeland Security Department.
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October 04, 2011
Federal Cybersecurity Incidents Rocket 650% In 5 Years
One new mandate that should bring better monitoring of agencies' cybersecurity postures is that agencies must begin reporting security data monthly to an online compliance tool called CyberScope.
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September 15, 2011
FISMA Mandates Monthly Security Reports For Agencies
... One of them calls for agencies to establish monthly data feeds to CyberScope, a compliance tool developed to help the feds to better and more actively monitor cybersecurity.
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August 4, 2011
How to Improve Network Security on a Limited Budget
... ensuring they are conforming to current and future rapidly changing IT governance laws and requirements (ie, CyberScope).
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March 25, 2011
With new FISMA rules, security progress can be measured
One concrete improvement last year under FISMA is reporting through Cyberscope, an interactive data collection tool that receives data feeds from agencies ...
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March 23, 2011
Federal Cyber Attacks Rose 39% In 2010
Moreover in fiscal year 2010, agencies started reporting detailed security metrics through Cyberscope, a Federal system aimed at obtaining an accurate ...
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February 16, 2011
Contrary to popular opinion, FISMA can improve security, agency officials say
All that data, plus the data being produced by other agencies' monitoring tools, is being sent to the Homeland Security Department via CyberScope ...
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February 14, 2011
Obama's Budget Boosts IT Spending 1.3%
DHS will upgrade the CyberScope cybersecurity monitoring tool...
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January 27, 2011
OMB pressures federal agencies to use network monitoring software.
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January 26, 2011
OMB Sets IT Deadlines for Agencies.
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October 4, 2010
Of those who have used CyberScope, however, 100 percent give the tool an “A” or “B” grade.
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In the News...

CyberScope
NextGov: Federal cybersecurity monitoring goes real-time and digital
The key to this new approach will be software that transmits data on the status of controls directly from each division of an agency. The data feeds will include information about an agency's inventory of systems and software, external connections, security training and user access. Agencies must submit this information through a new Web-based gateway called CyberScope by Nov. 15, and starting in 2011, they must file reports monthly, according to the memo. OMB will begin training them on how to use the tool in May.

Information Week: White House Updates Cybersecurity Orders
First, agencies will be required to feed cybersecurity information directly and in near real-time from their own security management tools into the recently implemented Cyberscope security reporting tool, which DHS is now operating. The White House is convening with agencies on May 7 to discuss how they will move forward with this plan, and what new metrics will be included in the new reporting.

Gov Info Security: FISMA Reporting Moves Into the 21st Century
Under the signatures of OMB Deputy Director for Management Jeffrey Zients, Federal Chief Information Office Vivek Kundra and Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum instructing federal departments and agencies to use a new, online interactive collection tool called CyberScope to file their fiscal year 2010 reports by Nov. 15 as required by FISMA. Agencies were instructed to provide updates on their privacy management programs through CyberScope, too.

Federal News Radio: OMB shifts to real time cybersecurity monitoring
"Cyberscope requires agencies to actually have a system that actively is monitoring and an inventory of all assets like routers, switches and desktops," Kundra says. "The information will be collected at the agency level and will be able to be correlated so we can see what's going on not just nationally, but globally. We want to have the right level of detail and ability to go to the most atomic level of analysis to figure out our vulnerabilities."

Gov Info Security: Kundra Previews New FISMA Guidance
Kundra, whose statutory title is OMB's administrator of e-government and IT, said the new guidance is aimed at moving agencies away from the process of filing paper documents that explain how they comply with Federal Information Security Management Act to one that employs new tools such as CyberScope, which furnishes a standard format and provides a better view of agencies' data. Eventually, CyberScope will feed data into a cybersecurity dashboard.

Gov Info Security: Automated FISMA Reporting Tool Unveiled
The Office of Management and Budget this month unveiled an interactive collection tool called CyberScope that should help agencies fulfill their IT security reporting requirements under the Federal Information Security Management Act.

Federal News Radio: Agency cybersecurity reporting to get makeover
"The Federal Information Security Management Act is not going away anytime soon. But the way agencies report on their implementation of the seven-year-old law is getting a much needed facelift. The Office of Management and Budget launched Oct. 19 CyberScope, an online reporting tool based on the Justice Department's CSAM application...

NextGov: Cybersecurity bill first step in fixing controversial FISMA
To alleviate some of the reporting hassle, OMB launched in 2009 a digital application that automatically and continuously collects information on compliance. CyberScope, which uses two identification checks to verify a person's permission to access the system, allows employees to derive more complex analyses of how secure systems are, Kundra said.

USAccess Program: Success Stories
In October 2009, OMB unveiled a new system, CyberScope, a streamlined platform developed for collection and consolidation of Agency FISMA reporting data. In addition to the considerable reduction in labor and time to analyze the data, CyberScope requires login using the standard PIV credential (or card) and the holders PIN. This is the first time the PIV credential has been required for use of a government wide system.