Data Protection Best Practices for Federal Agencies

When it comes to data protection strategy, business as usual for federal agencies is no longer the standard. The White House launched an IT modernization strategy that includes improving data protection policy requirements for the nation’s critical infrastructures.

For federal agencies, safeguarding data is crucial for maintaining national security and upholding public trust. The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks underscore the importance of implementing robust data protection policies. This article explores the key data protection best practices federal agencies should adopt to ensure the security, privacy, and integrity of their data.

FedRAMP and Cloud Modernization

In 2011, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) launched to promote cloud adoption in federal agencies. By 2022, two-thirds of federal agencies moved some of their applications and data to the cloud.

Since cloud providers have the most modern cybersecurity tools, it makes sense that the White House continues to push government entities into the cloud as part of its data protection strategy. Last year, the FedRAMP Authorization Act codified a standardized data protection policy for all federal government agencies. This standard will play a significant role in increasing cloud adoption for these organizations. Before FedRAMP, each agency had its own data protection policies, creating a patchwork of complexity and redundant processes that lacked the efficiencies of a standardized approach. FedRAMP provides that standardization.

What is the Data Protection Strategy Behind FedRAMP?

The data protection strategy for FedRAMP involves several key components to ensure the security and integrity of data within cloud environments. However, these data strategies can also apply to on-premises infrastructures. They include:

• Security Assessment and Authorization: Before a cloud service provider (CSP) can partner with federal agencies, it must undergo a thorough security assessment that analyzes controls, risk management practices and data protection mechanisms.
• Risk Management Framework: FedRAMP adopts the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management Framework (RMF) as its foundation. This framework provides a structured approach to identifying, assessing, mitigating and continuously monitoring risks to cloud systems and data.
• Continuous Monitoring: CSPs must implement strong encryption mechanisms to protect data at rest and in transit. Encryption ensures that the data remains unreadable and unusable to unauthorized parties even if unauthorized access occurs.
• Encryption: CSPs must implement strong encryption mechanisms to protect data at rest and in transit. Encryption ensures that even if unauthorized access occurs, the data remains unreadable and unusable to unauthorized parties.
• Access Controls and Identity Management: Effective access controls are essential to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data. FedRAMP mandates multi-factor authentication (MFA) for user access, role-based access control (RBAC) and robust user authentication and authorization mechanisms.
• Incident Response and Reporting: FedRAMP requires CSPs to have well-defined incident response plans, including procedures for detecting, reporting and responding to security incidents.
• Data Portability and Lock-In Mitigation: These strategies allow agencies to easily move their data and applications between different cloud providers, reducing the risk of vendor lock-in and ensuring that data remains under the agency’s control.
• Secure Configuration Management: This requirement includes maintaining up-to-date security patches, disabling unnecessary services and implementing secure network configuration to minimize configuration vulnerabilities.
• Compliance and Audit: Regular audits and assessments ensure CSPs continue to meet the program’s security requirements. Independent third-party assessors conduct audits to verify that the CSP’s security controls remain effective and aligned with the evolving threat landscape.
• Training and Awareness: Ongoing training and awareness programs educate personnel about security best practices, data protection measures, and how to respond to potential threats effectively.

Zero Trust Cybersecurity for Federal Agencies

Due to federal agencies having immeasurable volumes of data that is either protected or worse, vital to national security, it is strongly recommended that agencies and the departments within them adopt zero trust security policies as soon as possible. Zero trust cybersecurity operates under the principle of “never trust and always verify,” ensuring that malicious actors will not have an easy time moving within a network even after gaining access, since all interactions must be verified.

However, while zero trust cybersecurity is undeniably effective, implementing this level of security can be challenging without the aid of a partner.

Best Practices for Implementing FedRAMP Requirements

The increasing cybersecurity required by FedRAMP mandates new partnerships and better technologies for federal agencies. One of the best solutions, as assessed by Red River’s cybersecurity team for federal agencies, is Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery – a key part of a robust, compliant federal end-to-end data protection strategy.

The benefits of the Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery platform include:

• Protects across on-premises and cloud architectures, including any workload or consumption model.
• Redundant protection layers offering resilience against internal and external cyberattacks.
• Automated isolation features seek out corrupted data to diagnose and mitigate attack vectors.
• Data restoration includes dependency maps to smooth the recovery of associated services and applications.

Red River is proud to be an expert Dell partner and trusted cybersecurity advisor to federal agencies.  We regularly implement Dell PowerPoint Cyber Recovery and other key data protection tools for these organizations, including the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of the Navy. With over 25 years of IT expertise, we fully comply with the latest data requirements for federal contractors. Contact us to find out more. To learn more about data protection for federal agencies and governmental contractors, click the link below to read our free ebook.