In April, all federal agencies were required to start complying with a new mandate from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The mandate, known as Binding Operational Directive 23-01 (BOD 23-01), aimed to enhance visibility into agency IT assets and associated vulnerabilities. In simpler terms, it meant that agencies needed to improve their monitoring of assets and evaluate their security vulnerabilities.
While compliance with BOD 23-01 alone would not make agencies completely secure, it provided a solid foundation for identifying risks and building better security programs. Federal IT directors were urged to go beyond the requirements of the mandate and think about how they could use the new capabilities to enhance their network operations and security processes.
One of the key focus areas of BOD 23-01 was asset discovery and vulnerability enumeration. Asset discovery referred to the process of finding all network-addressable assets on an agency’s network infrastructure, including approved and unauthorized devices. This information was crucial for advanced analytics and security investigations. However, as networks grew larger and more complex, and users connected from various locations and devices, the task of asset discovery became increasingly challenging.
Vulnerability enumeration, on the other hand, involved identifying and reporting suspected vulnerabilities on network assets. It aimed to detect security flaws and issues such as outdated software versions, missing updates, and misconfigurations. By tracking compliance with security policies and matching host attributes with information on known vulnerabilities, agencies could better prioritize remediation efforts.
To meet the requirements of BOD 23-01, federal agencies were expected to perform automated asset discovery every seven days, identify software vulnerabilities using privileged or client-based means, track asset enumeration and vulnerability signatures, and provide this information to CISA’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) federal dashboard. The mandate provided specifics on the frequency of scans, scan methodologies, and reporting requirements but left the implementation details up to each agency’s IT leadership.
It was clear that the traditional approach of conducting compliance assessments every few years would no longer suffice. Agencies needed to adopt network automation and visibility solutions to scale their asset discovery and vulnerability assessment efforts. While complying with the mandate did not guarantee complete protection against cyberattacks, it significantly improved the security of IT resources. Asset visibility was crucial for activities like updates, configuration management, and vulnerability remediation.
However, complying with BOD 23-01 posed challenges for resource-constrained agencies. The mandate did not provide additional funding, which meant agencies had to optimize their existing operational and engineering resources. They needed a solution that democratized network automation, enabling subject matter experts to define topology, secure access, and compliance needs. Automation was the key to executing repetitive tasks at scale and meeting the weekly timeframes specified by the mandate.
Overall, the BOD 23-01 mandate was a crucial step in securing the US federal government’s digital footprint. It emphasized the importance of understanding the connected environment and its vulnerabilities in real-time to identify potential problems and attack vectors. Federal IT directors needed to embrace network automation and move away from labor-intensive approaches to successfully meet the requirements of the mandate. Automation allowed for the application of best practices and repetitive network tasks at scale, ensuring effective compliance with BOD 23-01.