The Federal Information Security Act (FISMA) was introduced in 2002 to ensure that all government vendors, contractors, and partners handle confidential and sensitive information appropriately, intending to provide protection against various security threats. Depending on the nature of your business, you’re going to need to reach specific levels of compliance to avoid FISMA fines, penalties, and consequences.
Blog
-

Penalties for Non-Compliance with FISMA (and how to avoid them)
No organization takes cyber security and digital privacy as seriously as the U.S. Department of Defense. It’s why the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) was implemented by the DoD, setting data security standards government partners and contractors. Vendors that fail to comply with FISMA could be in for stiff fines and penalties.
-

Benefits of Being FISMA Compliant
Maintaining compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) is essential for government agencies or private contractors that deal with those agencies. Since its formal adoption in 2003, FISMA has helped safeguard critical systems and information. Although FISMA compliance is mandatory for some, it carries with it a number of tangible benefits. In this article, we’ll break down what FISMA is, what the requirements of FISMA are, FISMA standards, and what benefits compliance with FISMA brings for covered entities. This information can help inform organizational decisions regarding whether obtaining, or maintaining, FISMA compliance can be beneficial to your organization and its cybersecurity solutions.
-

What Is A FISMA Audit?
In 2002, the internet was ten years old but still in many ways was in its nascent stages. However, its growth had spurred the dissemination and sharing of information at a torrid rate. At the turn of the century, the term “cybersecurity” had yet to become part of the mainstream lexicon. Despite the lack of sophistication in the early days of the internet, the government realized the potential risk that digital information could pose in the wrong hands.
-

How Does an External Penetration Test Work?
No matter what business you’re in, one of the most important (and worrisome) aspects from a technology standpoint is keeping your data secure. Not to mention that of your customers. But the unfortunate reality is that hackers are working day and night to break into systems and gain access to valuable financial, health, or intellectual property-related data. The question is, how do you figure out where (and how) they might get into your systems, so you can set up barricades ahead of any cyber attack?
-

What Are The Steps To Conducting An Internal Pen Test?
Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. To first do this, you need to think the way the offense of the other team thinks. In cybersecurity, this is done via penetration (pen) testing which serves the purpose of finding network flaws that could potentially be exploited by attackers sometime in the future. One statistic that is constantly quoted is how there is a hacker attack every 39 seconds in the U.S. alone. The one thing about this statistic is that it is over 11 years old. This makes you rethink its current validity and how much more often a hacker attack happens now in comparison to 2007. Considering that today’s complex cyber security landscape harbors emerging threats on a regular basis, we must face the fact that we encounter a plethora of more vulnerabilities than ever before.
-

Top 5 Penetration Testing Tools For Web Applications
From banking and finance to healthcare, there’s seemingly a web or mobile application for just about every aspect of our personal and business lives. Whether it’s an individual consumer accessing our investment accounts via smartphone, or a business owner managing inventory on a tablet, web applications have come a long way in terms of making our lives easier and more efficient. There’s just one catch. The more we use applications to handle sensitive information, the more tempting it is for hackers to break in an attempt to steal valuable data.
-

The Importance Of Web Penetration Testing
Web penetration testing is an important tool that is used by security professionals to test the integrity of web-facing cyber assets and systems. Penetration testing for web services is necessary to highlight risk factors associated with key vulnerabilities in existing cybersecurity implementations. Despite the importance of web penetration testing, many people outside of the cybersecurity industry fail to recognize the importance of conducting regular penetration testing. In this article, we’ll outline what web penetration testing is, explore web application penetration testing methodology, and discuss why it is a necessary component of any comprehensive security assessment.
-

What You Need To Know About Mobile Penetration Testing
Mobile applications (apps) are everywhere. The iOS App Store is currently home to over 2.2 million apps while the Google Play store currently has more than 3.5 million apps in its inventory. The mobile app market is set to grow by 385% from now until 2021 which is incredible, but the instances of mobile ransomware are growing by 415% every year. Don’t let these statistics rain on your parade just yet. There are tools and techniques that organizations can utilize to limit their chances of being affected by nasty malware. Keeping your organization’s mobile app(s) and customers protected against this increase in malware means taking a proactive approach towards penetration (pen) testing. This article aims to provide you, the reader, with a thorough overview on mobile pen testing as well as the types of pen testing methodologies for you to utilize in your organization immediately.
-

What Is the Difference Between an MSSP and an MSP?
When it comes to protecting your organization from cyber threats, going at it alone can be a risky proposition. While many companies have dedicated internal cybersecurity teams, the growth in number (and sophistication) of hackers and malicious actors often outpaces what organizations themselves can handle. That’s precisely why third-party services are becoming so popular, with both Managed Service Providers (MSP) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP) being employed on an ever increasing basis.
