Page 3 - FCW, Sept/Oct 2018

Trending
FAA explores shifting its network to FISMA high
30%
of federal hires come via authorities outside the competitive service rules — up from 20 percent in 1995
The Federal Aviation Administration might upgrade the information secu- rity categorization of its IT systems as part of an ongoing effort to modernize air traffic control.
The agency stated in a presolicita- tion notice that it is considering mov- ing the FAA Enterprise Network Ser- vices (FENS) Program from its current “moderate” category under the Federal Information Security Management Act to the highest security level.
The notice states that the FAA is planning a competitive acquisition for FENS “that will provide highly available and secure communications, informa- tion services and networking capabili- ties vital to National Airspace System operations and agency administration.”
NAS is not currently connected to the internet, but the FAA “is beginning to think about potential use of FENS in the future to support some of the NAS applications and NAS infrastructure,” said Steve Cooper, former acting CIO at the FAA. “Then it would have to be FISMA high.”
An FAA spokesperson told FCW that the agency recategorized 51 NAS sys-
tems from moderate to high in January and is now performing a gap analysis for each to determine which high controls should be implemented.
“Since critical NAS systems and services already require a high level of resiliency, availability and integrity,
president and general manager of Harris Mission Networks, said the implementa- tion of FISMA’s high standards “will no doubt require investment.”
“The degree, of course, is system- dependent and relies on just how many of the NIST high controls the system
“We expect the operational impacts of changing the categorization from
moderate to high to be minimal.” — FAA SPOKESPERSON
we expect the operational impacts of changing the categorization from mod- erate to high to be minimal,” the spokes- person added.
However, Ron Ross, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said: “It’s significant work to go from the moderate to the high. When you go from low to moderate or moderate to high, you’re adding controls.”
The contract that supports FENS is a 15-year, $3.5 billion deal awarded to Harris in 2002. Kelle Wendling, vice
owner already provides,” she said. While controls are being upgraded to the high level, “impact to operations will be mini- mal as most of the controls imposed are for back-office automation and processes used to manage and moni- tor these systems.”
Cooper said the increased security measures will lead to increased costs. “They’re going to have to do more to combat external and internal threat risk,” he added. “The contractors are going to love it.”
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