Managed IT Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
FISMA is a law that was passed by the federal government of the United States in 2002. The law requires federal agencies to create, record and maintain programs for information security and protection. FISMA was also developed to significantly reduce risks to data belonging to federal agencies and also limit the finances used by federal agencies on information security. As such FISMA ensures cost effective methods are used to maintain information security. Security standards and controls were developed to make it possible for FISMA to be effective. FISMA has since grown and now includes state programs like Medicare

Who FISMA applies to
When FISMA was created, it applied to United States federal agencies only but later it begun to be applied by all organizations that were in possession and management of federal information. State and local authorities that issue programs like Medicare, cloud providers and contractors, approved by the federal government also comply with FISMA. Organizations in the private sector that are in contract with the federal government are also required to comply with FISMA.
OUR FISMA AUDIT SERVICES
The compliance solution implemented by ISC is an attestation service for FISMA audits. We provide FISMA gap assessments for deciding where precisely one may be exposed, risk evaluations for discovering where one may be weak, and compliance audits for guaranteeing that the public or private sector organization completely complies with FISMA. These services ensure that you are up to date with federal regulations and keep your systems and data secure.
FISMA gap analysis
Our FISMA Gap Analysis tells you the state of your existing safeguards to determine which ones align with FISMA and require enhancement. These include access control mechanisms, encryption, policies regarding the employees, and even the measures put in place in cases of security breaches. The findings assist in developing a blueprint showing that your organization complies with all federal security standards.
FISMA compliance audit
After you’ve created a FISMA-compliant security plan, ISC can independently verify your work. We offer third-party validation to confirm your policies and procedures meet FISMA requirements. This formal audit provides documented proof that your security measures are up to standard, providing greater confidence in your organization’s security posture.
Integrated Federal Cybersecurity and Compliance Engagements
FISMA Risk Assessments are needed whenever you change your information system. Our auditors follow NIST guidelines to identify vulnerabilities, assess their risk, and evaluate the potential impact of breaches. This helps you decide which risks are acceptable and which ones need extra security measures to protect your system.
Integrated Federal Cybersecurity and Compliance Engagements
PREPARING FOR AN FISMA AUDIT
The Relationship Between NIST and FISMA
FISMA guidelines
FISMA provides guidelines using NIST standards and security controls for;
Inventory for information systems
Each and every enterprise, which operates at the federal level, as well as every single company, which has a contract with the USA government, is obliged to provide records of every single asset utilized within the scope of informational systems. FISMA also mandates that the organizations demonstrate how the information system is connected to the network.
Classifying information and systems based on their risk level.
Information should be organized according to how sensitive it is, and how crucial it is, then it should be grouped in a way that can be used to give priority to if need be. This also assists, the agencies in identifying which information deserves the most security and attention. When information is not classified it goes round and round within the agency without being accessed whenever necessary that is why it should be classified.
Conducting risk assessments
FISMA borrows its security requirements from. According to NIST, a successful risk assessment should include an identification of all the risks at the organization level, business level and information system level.
Regular monitoring of threats
Threats are not static but are dynamic in nature hence every day a new threat may crop up or an existing one may upscale its operations, meaning Organization can never be over protected or over guarded. FISMA mandates that organizations must always be vigilant to check whether the systems they have are still adequate to safeguard federal possessions.
Maintaining certification and accreditation
- Initiate and plan
- Certified
- Accredited
- Continued monitor
FISMA Risk Levels
There is the classification of the risk sectaries to CDI and CUI. This is about attesting a risk level to each type of data that you process – in electronic or in non-electronic form.
Low-Impact information
(like Contractor agreements and Proprietary business information) will almost not affect your operation if violated.
Moderate-Impact information
Moderate-Impact information (like process manuals and financial information) would cause a huge hit to the organization’s mission if lost. If a breach is carried out it could lead to the loss of some or all organizational assets, a substantial loss in terms of money, or a serious harm to people.
High-Impact information
(e.g. military strategies and vision/mission statements of critical infrastructure organizations) would be disastrous to government organizations or persons – potentially even fatal – if leaked.
After arriving at the required risk levels for information and systems it is possible to predict what threats one has to protect against.
FISMA Controls
- Access controls
- Awareness and training
- Audit and accountability
- Configuration management
- Contingency planning
- Identification and authentication
- Incident response
- Incident response
- Maintenance
- Media protection
- Personnel security
- Physical and environmental security
- Program management
- Security assessment and authorization Security planning
- System and communication protection
- System and information integrity
- System and service acquisition
- Risk assessments
FISMA Metric
- The number of hardware assets and mobile devices in use by the organization and its network connections
- The current security setting standard that can be applied to each hardware asset and mobile device
- The specific cloud services of an agency and the vendor for each
- The specific cloud services of an agency and the vendor for each
- The number of systems that encrypt federal data while at rest
- The connection methods employed by each type of removable media to allow remote access