The FISMA Focus IPD

The Blue Teams will analyze how agencies are complying with cybersecurity standards for the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative, Don Benack, program manager for DHS’ cybersecurity assurance program, told Federal News Radio.

According to DHS, the purpose of the TIC initiative is “to optimize and standardize the security of individual external network connections currently in use by federal agencies, to include connections to the internet. The initiative will improve the federal government’s security posture and incident response capability through the reduction and consolidation of external connections, and provide enhanced monitoring and situational awareness of external network connections.”

In an interview with Federal News Radio, Benack said that DHS started with the Blue Teams assessing network controls established by his agency and the Office of Management and Budget, and expanded the effort to include other agencies through working groups to refine the capability statements.

“Our teams go into the field and look to validate those controls that are in place. It’s pretty straight forward. We look to see that, technically, the capability is in place, but we also look for policies and that standard operation policies are in place – and we talk to the staff”, he explained.

The work of the Blue Teams complements that of the Red Teams, which go into agencies hunting for vulnerabilities in agency networks, he added.