Starting this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working on a cooperative effort with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) to provide state-of-the-art managed security services to states and territories in conjunction with their adoption of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework.
The effort is part of DHS’s Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community (C3) Voluntary Program, which serves as the coordination point within the federal government to leverage and enhance existing capabilities and resources to promote the adoption the Cybersecurity Framework. As part of this agreement, the MS-ISAC will provide Managed Security Services (MSS), including intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, netflow analysis and firewall monitoring to states and territories—free of charge.
Adopting the Cybersecurity Framework is key to keeping networks and information systems secure. DHS is working with our state and territorial partners to make sure they are aware of the services and tools available to them. We remain committed to strengthening the resilience of critical networks, and to enabling our state and local governments to protect the public from evolving cyber threats.
The adoption of the framework will encourage longer-term risk-based planning and better security overall – this is a win-win and we are excited to be able to provide such tactical assistance to our state and territorial stakeholders.
This is just one of many steps we are taking to further our collaboration with partners across the country on this important issue. Moving forward, DHS and the MS-ISAC will seek feedback and requirements from the states and territories and tailor technical assistance and best practice documents to meet their needs.