OMB Memo M-24-15 published on July 24, 2024 directed GSA and the FedRAMP PMO to streamline the FedRAMP ATO process using NIST OSCAL. By late 2025 or early 2026 (18 months after the issuance of the memo), GSA must ensure the ability to receive FedRAMP authorization and continuous monitoring artifacts through automated, machine-readable means. Additionally, by the Summer of 2026 (twenty four months after the issuance of the memo), agencies must ensure that agency GRC and system-inventory tools can ingest and produce machine-readable authorization and continuous monitoring artifacts using OSCAL, or any succeeding protocol as identified by FedRAMP.

As agencies, and cloud service providers race to meet the mandated timelines, it is important to understand and adopt NIST OSCAL in the right way! The experienced team of FedRAMP experts at stackArmor with over a decade plus of experience in helping cloud service providers meet the requirements of the FedRAMP program have developed an informative white paper titled “Smart Compliance with Component Oriented Security Thinking and OSCAL“.

Within OSCAL, the Component Definition (CDEFs) Model offers a novel approach to System Security Plan (SSP) development. This model allows for the modular representation of system components and their associated control implementations. The approach can be adapted to align compliance with the system development using the four pillars of Object-Oriented Analysis & Design (OOAD). By leveraging CDEF’s, organizations can reduce duplicative documentation, share common repositories, and deliver more accurate representations of their dynamic systems.

We encourage you to download and read this whitepaper.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Blog Archives - stackArmor authored by stackArmor. Read the original post at: https://stackarmor.com/making-fedramp-atos-great-with-oscal-and-components/