FISMA Compliance Checklist

The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) is a law passed in the United States in 2002, to protect federal information and assets from security threats. This act makes it mandatory for federal agencies to develop and implement plans and policies for an information security program.

Who does it apply to?

All federal agencies such as the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Defense (DOD) and so on.
All private companies which are in a contractual relationship with any government department.

How to comply with FISMA?

To comply with FISMA, this checklist can help:

Classify your data: Prioritize your data based on how sensitive they are for your organization. This can help you design the right security controls based on criticality of data.
Create an inventory of information systems: Maintain an inventory of all the information systems with details such as model number, date of purchase, and service records. This means that service records will have to be regularly maintained.
Implement a system security plan: Outline and implement a system security plan. This should include timelines for specific security procedures such as a review or testing process, or using or introducing new security tools. These plans should be regularly reviewed and updated.
Monitor continuously: Your systems and Active Directory network have to be continuously monitored for any unexpected modifications or changes. This includes file integrity monitoring, vulnerability scanning, log analysis, and so on. Monitoring Active Directory can keep your network safe from malicious agents who might want to tamper with the data on the network.
Keep a record of all FISMA compliance efforts: Keep a record of all the activities that have been carried out in your firm to ensure FISMA compliance, such as, the system security plan, the inventory of systems and the documents of risk assessment.

Meeting FISMA compliance with ADAudit Plus

ADAudit Plus is a real-time Active Directory auditing tool that can help you with all the important FISMA requirements. This tool can perform risk assessment, risk categorization, and enforce the required security controls. ADAudit Plus has a separate section for FISMA compliance which contains reports on file modifications, logon activity, remote desktop services activity and so on. Finally, ADAudit Plus can help with continuous real-time monitoring. Here are the audit reports for FISMA compliance available on ADAudit Plus:

The FISMA section contains various reports such as file and folder changes, logon activity, group management and so on. These reports can help you detect an unauthorized attempt at modifying files, or shows the user account modifications that have been initiated on the network. This can help administrators detect any intruders on the network. These reports can be accessed on the ADAudit Plus tool by navigating to Reports > Compliance > FISMA.

About ADAudit Plus

ADAudit Plus is a real-time, web-based Windows Active Directory change reporting software that audits, tracks, reports and alerts on Windows (Active Directory, workstations logon/logoff, file servers and servers), NetApp filers and EMC servers to help meet the demands of the much-needed security, audit and compliance, including FISMA compliance. With ADAudit Plus, track authorized/unauthorized AD management changes, access of users, GPO, groups, computer, OU. Track every file, folder modifications, access and permissions changes with 200+ detailed event-specific reports and get instant emails alerts. You can also export the results to XLS, HTML, PDF and CSV formats to assist in interpretation and computer forensics. For more information on ADAudit Plus, visit https://www.manageengine.com/active-directory-audit/.

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