NIST 800-171 Services for Government Contractor

What NIST 800-171? The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency, developed the NIST 800-171 protocol to dictate how contractors and subcontractors in business with the government should handle Controlled Unclassified Information CUI. The CUI contains the data which is private and cannot be exposed so it should be protected in order to help the US government to achieve their goals. And NIST 800-171 Services for Government Contractor help him in order to compliance with NIST. It advertise and maintains measurements standards. It also increases the cybersecurity.

Being prepared to handle cyber-attack will ensure that your business operations and valuable data are protected. As a government Contractor, you have the added responsibility of safeguarding nation’s valuable data assets. To guarantee that risk are mitigated, cyber risks standards are now being applied to contractors that are issued by the DOD to the government contractors. The DOD requires government contractors to demonstrate cybersecurity adherence for protection of Covered Defense Information (CDI), and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), or Unclassified Controlled Technical Information (UCTI). If there are doubts about the nature of data, makes sure to discuss with your government Contracting Officer (GCO).

What actually NIST 800-171 Services for a government contractor is. It is principally a set of measures and standards that define the way how to safeguard and distribute material deemed sensitive but not classified. NIST 800-171 Services controls apply to federal government contractors and subcontractors. If you are another company you work with has a contract with a federal agency, you must be a complaint with the policy. Federal agencies may include specific requirements in their contract, however if you don’t have those clauses in your contract, that won’t stop NIST 800-171 for applying to your agreement.

Here are few agencies or organizations to which a federal contractor can comply with NIST 800-171 Services.

  • Department of Defense (DoD)
  • General Services Administration (GSA)
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
  • Universities and research institutions supported by federal grants
  • Consulting companies with federal contracts
  • Service providers for federal agencies
  • Manufacturing companies supplying goods to federal agencies

What do a government contractor have to do to reach NIST Compliance?

Government contractor initially faced a deadline to attain compliance with all the security requirements in NIST 800-171 services for a Government Contractor. There are few measures and standards that are must followed by a government contractor. . Failure in this may cause an affect in any dealing with these agencies, including severance of contract. If you missed the deadline then you could be at the risk of losing contract and relationships with the agencies. There are few rules and regulations set by NIST services. In order to attain a compliance government contractor need to fulfill the requirements and standards set by NIST 800-171 services for a Government Contractor. The requirement are given bellow.

  • Access Control
  • Awareness and Training
  • Audit and Accountability
  • Configuration Management
  • Identification and Authentication
  • Incident Response
  • Maintenance
  • Media Protection
  • Personnel Security
  • Physical Protection
  • Risk Assessment
  • Security Assessment
  • System and Communications Protection
  • System and Information Integrity

Benefits of NIST 800-171 Services for a Government Contractor

Some of the benefits for a Government contactor includes:

  1. Risk management
  2. Reduces risk of data breaches
  3. Reduced risk from insider threats
  4. Best practice for data access policies
  5. A common framework and methodology for managing risk
  6. Scalable security approach to protecting sensitive data

Varonis helps maintain compliance with NIST 800-171 Services for Government Contractor: the Data Classification Engine is the first step to identify and classify your CUI across your core data stores. Data Advantage helps map folders and permissions, with full reporting and auditing on who can (and who should access that data), while Data Privilege enables data owner to manage and audit access to their data. Automation Engine can quarantine, migrate, or delete unsecured CUI.