Federal Agency CIOs will be facing additional security requirements later this year, when the more than 160 IT security criteria in NIST Special Publication 800-53 become mandatory. The publication, “Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems, “ issued February 2005, will become FIPS PUB 200, “Minimum Security Requirements for Federal Information and Information Systems.”

FIPS PUB 200 will include a comprehensive set of approximately 160 individual areas of certification and will cover 17 key security focus areas, including:

• risk assessment
• contingency planning
• incident response
• access control
• identification and authentication

Agencies will be given one year (from date of final FIPS publication) to implement these new requirements in their own IT infrastructures. This aggressive schedule and the complexity of implementing IT security in the current Federal government environment is positive news for security solution providers. The vast majority of federal agencies will need detailed guidance on how to manage and maintain a leading-edge security plan in the midst of infrastructure upgrades, legacy migrations, and large-scale consolidation.

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