http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20120112_1956.php By Aliya Sternstein Nextgov 01/12/2012 A critical part of a fast-track strategy that allows agencies to digitally borrow each other's cloud security guarantees will not be available when the operation gets under way this summer, federal officials told Nextgov. The mantra of the new effort, called the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, is "Do once; use many times," meaning a department can go through the arguably arduous process of authorizing a Web-based service and then many other departments can sponge off that work to deploy the tool more quickly. The General Services Administration, which manages the program, plans for the certifications to be accessible through a central online clearinghouse. But there are fears that a database containing vulnerability assessments for the entire federal cloud could be an attractive target for hackers, GSA officials acknowledge. "It's largely going to be a paper-based process at the beginning because we won't have the bandwidth up in time," GSA Associate Administrator Dave McClure said in an interview. Independent auditors are scheduled to start generating the FedRAMP assessments in June. Currently, government contractors, including Microsoft, often hand deliver assessments out of caution. McClure said officials have not built the repository yet, but based on feedback from agencies and cloud service providers they know access constraints will factor into the construction. [...] _____________________________________________________ Did a friend send you this article? Make it your New Year's Resolution to subscribe to InfoSec News! http://www.infosecnews.org/mailman/listinfo/isnReceived on Fri Jan 13 2012 - 03:02:46 PST
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