Cybersecurity Policy and Security Planning

The Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security Division worked with subject matter experts from government, the private sector, and academia to develop an umbrella framework that establishes a national baseline representing the essential knowledge and skills IT security practitioners must have to perform their jobs. The IT Security EBK builds directly on established work and is not intended to represent a standard, directive, or policy by DHS. Instead, it further clarifies key IT security terms and concepts for well-defined competencies, identifies notional security roles, and defines primary functional perspectives to help advance the IT security training and certification landscape as we strive to ensure that we have the most qualified and appropriately trained IT security workforce possible.

This federal register notice informs the public and interested stakeholders that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is making available for public review and comment ``Information Technology (IT) Security Essential Body of Knowledge (EBK): A Competency and Functional Framework for IT Security Workforce Development.'' This framework is intended to assist the public, private, and academic sectors with strategic IT security workforce development initiatives including professional development, training and education. The EBK is not an additional set of DHS guidelines, and it is not intended to represent a standard, directive, or policy by DHS. Instead, it further clarifies key IT security terms and concepts for well-defined competencies, identifies notional security roles, defines four primary functional perspectives, and establishes an IT Security Role, Competency, and Functional Matrix.

This publication focuses on developing and implementing information security metrics for an information security program. The processes and methodologies described in this guidance link information security performance to agency performance by leveraging agency-level strategic planning processes. The performance metrics developed according to this guide will enhance the ability of agencies to respond to a variety of federal government mandates and initiatives, including the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and the President's Management Agenda (PMA).

By adopting a unified approach to information security compliance, higher education institutions not only can effectively satisfy the requirements of the growing number of state and federal laws and industry regulations but also can address identified risks and improve the security of their information assets.

In the past three years, higher education institutions have made a number of moves to secure their critical systems and protect their users, resulting in a marked change in the techniques used to combat security threats. Today, continued progress may depend on the development of an enterprise IT security program.