A reader who calls himself “Dis-appointed?” asks: Dear Dr. RMF, Are appointment letters required to obtain an eMASS account for the roles of ISSO, ISSM, and SCA? Also, are appointment letters required for executing the roles of ISSO, ISSM and SCA (outside of obtaining eMASS accounts)? Dr. RMF Responds: Dear…
This blog excerpt is taken from our July 2023 newsletter. To view the rest of the newsletter, visit rmf.org/newsletter. By Lon J. Berman, CISSP, RDRP When it comes to the future of RMF, rumors abound but truth is hard to come by. In this article, we’ll take a look at…
by Lon J. Berman, CISSP, RDRP Those of us who have worked with government information systems for a number of years have come to realize the wheels of change turn very slowly – but they do turn! Case in point – DoD adoption of NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-53 Rev…
“Teamwork? I think not!” writes: Dear Dr. RMF, I am trying to put together a team to work the RMF process for a new system that’s under development. I got the bright idea of having each of the team members take responsibility for the security controls that are pertinent to…
By Lon J. Berman, CISSP, RDRP Sometimes I wish I had a crystal ball I could peer into to see what is in store for the future. And nowhere do I wish for this more fervently than in the area of cybersecurity and RMF. It would be lovely to know…
By Lon J. Berman, CISSP, RDRP So, you’ve got your System Categorization completed and you’ve included any applicable overlays. You’ve reviewed all the resulting security controls to see if any of them should be marked Not Applicable, and, for those, you’ve written a justification. You’ve even gone through the security…
by P. Devon Schall, PhD, CISSP, RDRP BAI recognizes that eMASS is a stumbling block for many new RMF practitioners. To mitigate these challenges, our instructional designers felt the creation of an eMASS sandbox environment where our students could practice working in eMASS without being scared to submit incorrect data…
By Lon J Berman, CISSP, RDRP The Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS) is a DoD system that serves as an information repository and workflow manager for the Risk Management Framework (RMF) process. The history of eMASS can be traced back to a project called Digital DITSCAP at the Defense…
Dear Dr. RMF, I can tell you I am definitely new to eMass. However, I have registered several packages and brought over artifacts. I have blindly (using the job aid) assigned controls, exported the spreadsheet and reimported. Haven’t been able to produce the RAR or POAM. With that being said,…