America’s Cyber Defense Agency Wants to Partner with You

The importance of partnership and collaboration was the over-arching theme of today's fireside chat between Wayne Selk, vice president, cybersecurity programs, CompTIA and Julius Gamble, regional director, Region 4, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at ChannelCon 2024 in Atlanta. The session, America's Cyber Defense Agency: How it Supports MSPs and Your Clients, highlighted an array of free resources, tools, training and assistance CISA offers to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) around the country-including MSPs.

Why Work with CISA?

CISA is the operational lead for federal cybersecurity and the national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience. The agency works with partners to defend against today's threats and collaborate to build a more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future.

"We engage the field model to work with state and local government and private sector entities," said Gamble. "We're embedded within the communities and have cybersecurity professionals assigned to particular regions. If you're a small- or medium-sized business and you need cybersecurity assistance, our agency offers that at no charge. We see these partnerships as central to securing the nation."

Gamble, who oversees eight southeastern states including, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, said that the agency is tracking nation state actors that poise threats to our critical infrastructure, prioritizing healthcare entities and is seeing threats specific to ransomware continue to increase across SMBs.

"The data is remarkable," he said. "We're seeing threat actors offering a ransomware settlement that is almost exactly what an organization can afford. We work to make sure we're engaging with these partners beforehand to lower that risk."

How You Can Partner with CISA

Although CISA's mandate and mission is to make sure our nation's critical infrastructure is secure, Gamble said they can't do it alone. That's why the agency offers a multitude of free resources MSPs can leverage to enhance the security postures of your company and your customers' companies.

These no-cost, in-house cybersecurity services are designed to help your company build and maintain a robust and resilient framework and advance your security capabilities:

• Regional Cyber Security Advisors (CSAs): CSAs introduce organizations to various CISA cybersecurity products and services, act as liaisons to CISA cyber programs, provide cyber preparedness assessments and protective resources, and coordination and support in times of cyber threat, disruption or attack. Contact your region's office.
• Cyber Hygiene Services: CISA's Cyber Hygiene services help secure internet-facing systems from weak configurations and known vulnerabilities, helping you be more proactive to reduce your exposure to threats. Learn how you can enroll.
• Cybersecurity Performance Goals: These help businesses prioritize investment in a limited number of essential actions with high-impact security outcomes and can be valuable in developing organizational best practices. Learn more.
• Risk and Vulnerability Assessments: CISA will perform vulnerability scans for your company a few times per quarter, per month or per week if you suspect abnormal activity. CISA does not keep or store your company's data.
• Shields Up: CISA urges everyone to protect themselves online and adopt a heightened posture when it comes to cybersecurity, offering guidance for individuals, organizations, and leadership to enhance online security. Learn more.

See all the free cyber services CISA offers.

"Each and every day our cybersecurity staff is out there engaged in the community," Gamble said. "This allows us to be nested with our partners making sure we're not only offering vulnerability assessments and doing exercises, but also building those relationships."

Where to Start?

With such an abundance of information, the question always is: Where to start? Selk suggested starting with the Cybersecurity Performance Goals.

"The cybersecurity performance goals are a great way for your clients to start thinking about cybersecurity and why it's important," he said. "CISA does a great job of showing you not only what you should follow, but how you should follow it."

Gamble also suggested engaging in tabletop exercises.

"It's not if you will be breached, but when you will be breached," he said. "Organizationally, our tabletop exercises engage everyone from the C-suite to tech folks and your legal team. They are geared toward making sure the organization knows exactly what to do and who they should call when an incident occurs.

At the end of the day, working with CISA is much more than taking advantage of no-cost resources and services-it's about forging a partnership that can weather any storm.

Gamble agrees.

"We're building sunny day relationships with our partners before the rain and the storm comes," he said.

Improve your cybersecurity resilience.

Learn about the CompTIA Information and Sharing Analysis Organization (ISAO).

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