The FISMA Focus IPD

Last week I wrote about the notice published by DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) concerning the notifications made to organizations and facilities that have been designated Cyber Dependent Critical Infrastructure (CDCI). In that post I mentioned in passing that the request for reconsideration process outlined in that notice could be used by facilities that wished to be so designated. Today I want to look at why a facility might want to make such a request.

Program Benefits

The CDCI program is part of the President’s executive order on Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (EO 13636) and is identified in §9 of that document. Actually, §9 only outlines the procedures for designating facilities as CDCI. The Notice published last week provides a brief listing of the positive impacts associated with the CDCI designation:

● Ability to request expedited processing through the DHS Private Sector Clearance Program, which may provide access to classified government cybersecurity threat information as appropriate;

● May be prioritized for routine and incident-driven cyber technical assistance activities offered by DHS and other agencies; and

● May receive priority in gaining access to Federal resources and programs to enhance the security and resilience of critical infrastructure against cybersecurity threats.