What is Office 365 FedRAMP?
FISMA or Federal Information Security Management Act needs U.S. federal agencies to create, document, and deploy controls to save their information and information systems. FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Program) is a federal risk management program having a standardized approach used to access and analyze the security of cloud products and services. The FedRAMP specifies how the Office 365 service follows privacy and security processes relating to FedRAMP/FISMA.
Is Office 365 FedRAMP compliant?
The fact is, Microsoft Office 365 has been granted or considered excellent for FedRAMP.
FedRAMP is compulsory for Federal Agency cloud deployments and service models.
Office 365 has been used to assess at a moderate level by a Third-party Assessment Organization (3PAO) and also awarded a FedRAMP ATO from HHS OIG.
In this pandemic, Microsoft teams are experiencing a massive hike in online calls and video or audio conferencing. This call or video or audio conferences stay within the Microsoft FedRAMP high accreditation boundary servers in the U.S. and don’t occupy any customer content.
Elaboration about FedRAMP
FedRAMP or Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program is a government-wide program that ensures a standardized way to authorization, security assessment, and continuous evaluation for cloud products and services. Further, Microsoft Office 365 has been made eligible for FedRAMP.
FedRAMP ATO used to apply over Office 365 Government plans in the United States – E1, E3, E4 and standalone plans such as;
- Exchange Online Plan 1
- Exchange Online Plan 2, and more.
Also, the office 365 Government plans in the United States are also known as the GCC (Government Community Cloud).
In addition, Office 365 is a multi-tenant cloud that has government-specific services like SharePoint Online, Lync Online, and Exchange Online. These specific instances of Office 365 services are designed to use by U.S. state, local, federal, and tribal government clients, and FFRDCs (Federally Funded Research and Development Centers).
CMMC Marketplace is the best destination to avail Office 365 FedRAMP services. To know about Office 365 FedRAMP, click on this link https://cmmcmarketplace.org/fedramp.
CMMC Accreditation Body
The CMMC Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB) deploys on the CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) model certification first published by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2020.
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification ensures certifications for C3PAOs (Certified Third Party Assessment Organizations) who hire CMMC-AB qualified supervisors who, in turn, are instructed by CMMC AB Certified Instructors.
CMMC is designed to assist the business to protect sensitive data and information from hackers or malicious cyber activity such as intellectual property theft. This certification framework is the updated requirement for organizations seeking to gratify any type of department of a defense contract.
Moreover, the whole Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification ecosystem is designed to ensure the assurance to the Department of Defense (DOD) of the cybersecurity posture of the Defense Supply Chain.
CMMC Accreditation body needs third-party support for assessor training and certification
The CMMC program’s accreditation body is seeking companies to support the training along with authorization of single assessors as the Department of Defense willing to roll out the contractor vetting program.
As per the report, CMMC-AB (Accreditation Body) specified its plan to add an organization to review materials for Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification assessor training that were established by independent entities. Also, the board noted in a further notice that it is also looking for an organization to create and provide certification exams for potentials accreditors.
Further, CMMC-AB considers authorizing licensed partner publishers to establish educational content as well as certified training providers to give training to the third-party assessors for the program.
Interesting aspirants must complete LTP-administered training along with clear a certification exam after securing authorization with an intention to audit potential DoD (Department of Defense), contractors.