CISA Shares Federal Cyber Guidance With Critical Infrastructure Companies

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a guide to network monitoring that it said was developed for federal agencies but can also provide help to other government organizations as well as critical infrastructure entities.

CISA’s new Logging Reference Architecture guide is designed to help federal agencies improve their network monitoring by implementing effective logging, visibility and operational standards, the agency said in a Aug. 20 press release.

“Cyber defense begins with insight,” CISA Acting Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Chris Butera said in the release. “Robust logs provide the critical visibility needed to counter daily threats targeting federal systems.”

The Logging Reference Architecture guide is designed to help federal civilian executive branch agencies establish the standards required by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-26-14, according to the release.

That memorandum, which was released May 22, requires agencies to implement appropriate event logging that will help combat attacks against critical systems, which have been accelerated by cybercriminals’ use of automation and artificial intelligence, according to the memorandum.

CISA’s new guide helps agencies develop logging capabilities that will support continuous event monitoring, threat hunting, incident response and forensics. It includes operational checklists to inform agencies’ architecture design and organizational strategies, as well as guidance on integrating AI into logging processes, according to the release.

While Logging Reference Architecture was developed for federal agencies, its guidance can also help critical infrastructure entities and state, local, territorial and tribal government organizations with their own logging and monitoring plans, per the release.

“CISA is enhancing agency logging strategies to ensure security teams can rapidly detect and respond to cyber incidents,” Butera said in the release. “The Logging Reference Architecture guides agencies away from fragmented practices, establishing a mature enterprise capability that maximizes the operational value of their data.”

CISA said in April 2024 that critical infrastructure companies should implement enhanced safeguards as artificial intelligence increasingly integrates into essential sectors such as energy, transportation and healthcare. AI systems are vulnerable to hackers because they can contain vulnerabilities from not only their own source code but also open-source components and cloud infrastructure.

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