To say that organizations today are concerned about cybersecurity would be a gross understatement.
Every time we turn around, there are reports of incidents where cybercriminals have either gamed a global social media tool or compromised a corporate customer database.
Needless to say, the U.S. government has also been extremely focused on cybersecurity — as evidenced by its recent directive, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), which aims to help government agencies protect their own data and that of organizations with which they do business.
What Does the DFARS Require?
The regulation requires any Department of Defense (DOD) contractor or subcontractor who handles controlled unclassified information (CUI) to comply with the data-protection standards outlined in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171. According to NIST, CUI consists of “any sensitive federal government information routinely processed, stored or transmitted by a contractor in the course of its work providing essential products and services to federal agencies.”
DFARS is part of a worldwide trend of increasingly stringent data security standards. In May 2018, for example, the European Union (EU) enacted its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to enhance user privacy and provide legal recourse when refuting algorithm-based decisions. Also, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires companies that accept credit card payments to host customer data securely with a PCI-compliant hosting provider. These and countless other standards show that data security is top of mind for industry leaders around the world.
Keep reading this article at: https://securityintelligence.com/how-multifactor-authentication-can-help-u-s-government-contractors-achieve-dfars-compliance/
See GTPAC’s video, template and other resources designed to help contractors comply with the DoD/NIST cybersecurity rules at: http://gtpac.org/cybersecurity-training-video/
