JIE-READY STEP 4: Develop artifacts for IA and ATO

The design and implementation phases of JRSS and JIE will, very likely, receive a significant amount of scrutiny from Information Assurance (IA) to ensure that numerous standards and guidelines are followed. The goal of this scrutiny is to obtain an Authorization to Operate (ATO). There are many different components of the IA process and developing artifacts to support the ATO effort (unfinished sentence?). RedSeal will provide some unique analysis artifacts that without RedSeal would be extremely cumbersome and time-consuming to obtain. At a high level these items include STIG checking for devices, segment access validation, validation of configuration against standard or gold build, and logical zone compliance.

RedSeal’s model of the network will allow for faster artifact development and the development of these artifacts BEFORE deployment. The RedSeal platform has the capability to combine any components of the model (hosts, devices, subnets, etc.) into logical groups. These are referred to as zones (sometimes also called segments or enclaves). Because RedSeal understands all the access in the network, the platform is capable of presenting and measuring all access into and out of the zone and between all other zones or the network at large. It is also possible to write business or policy decisions against those access paths and track those decisions for compliance purposes. This RedSeal use case will assist JRSS and JIE with meeting or exceeding the Department of Defense Ports, Protocols, and Services Management (PPSM) guidelines. These guidelines will be applied to the Joint Regional Security Stack (JRSS) and the components that comprise the stack.

Assessing network access by logically zoning or grouping is one piece of the puzzle. RedSeal will also be assessing the components of the JRSS for compliance with other standards of configuration as mentioned earlier, such as STIGs and gold builds. These device level checks are somewhat customizable as well. Certain components of STIGs require modification to meet the environment, and RedSeal allows for that customization within STIG specific checks. It also allows for full customization or creation of device-level checks in the event a new verification check is needed. Within the RedSeal platform, not only is the security of the network analyzed, the security of the component stack providing the security services is analyzed and verified as well.

The Department of Defense has already begun building JRSS and assessing legacy networks. Understanding that legacy infrastructure, ensuring it is effective and efficient, assessing security and meeting compliance during design and migration and beyond, are critical steps. Are you ready for JIE? RedSeal Networks is.