Forescout secures DoD ‘Comply-to-Connect’ contract, as ​​program expands to secure OT environments

Cybersecurity vendor Forescout announced Thursday that it has secured a new contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), as it enters year four of the Comply-to-Connect (C2C) program. The program’s next stage will be to configure delivered capabilities to enforce zero trust access principles across the DoD Information Network (DoDIN) enterprise and bring the DoD closer to the goals set forth in the Department’s Zero Trust Strategy.

With the first three steps of the program – visibility, compliance assessment, and automated remediation – underway, administrators can now use Forescout’s orchestration capabilities to manage policy enforcement points to create the desired effects on an individual user/device/access request basis. Additionally, Forescout’s continuous monitoring capabilities are at work to ensure connected devices don’t fall out of compliance due to files getting corrupted, simple administrative mistakes, or malicious adversarial actions, all of which occur daily on the DoDIN.

C2C is one of the largest government cybersecurity initiatives in the world delivering enterprise-scale capabilities for managing cyber operational risk. With the program now in its fourth year, automated control of access to and within the DoDIN will ensure that each network user has the access necessary to achieve their mission without exposing other users to threats that could impact their ability to complete their mission.

As advocated by the Defense Information System Agency (DISA) C2C Program Management Office (PMO), the new contract also delivers additional capabilities to the C2C platform that revolutionize the security of OT (operational technology) networks and integrate risk management and decision-making into the existing C2C platform. This addition further positions the DoD to apply NIST zero trust principles to millions of devices across the enterprise. 

Implementation of zero trust principles using Forescout’s C2C capabilities is already being accomplished in some areas of the Army, via an initiative being taught at Fort Gordon schoolhouses and referenced in Defense Acquisition University.

“We are proud to once again be trusted by so many organizations to secure the backbone of their operations: the networks that connect everything,” Barry Mainz, CEO at Forescout, said in a media statement. “Each DoDIN user should have confidence that their slice of the network is secure and ready for them to accomplish their mission. That’s what we are delivering through C2C.”

Through the contract, the Forescout platform provides comprehensive capabilities for the DoD’s C2C security framework that enables the critical first pillar of DISA’s zero trust program called Thunderdome. This includes network-based discovery and classification of assets, including an expanding set of ‘unmanaged’ assets that are unable to operate agents (C2C Steps 1 and 2). It also integrates with other enterprise solutions such as Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM); Security Information Event Management (SIEM); and Vulnerability Assessment products to automate compliance of the cybersecurity posture and establish trust for every connecting asset (C2C Step 3).

It also covers the orchestration of policy enforcement points across the infrastructure to enforce network access control and segmentation of assets as well as complete situational awareness of the network posture (C2C Steps 4 and 5).

“We look forward to introducing cloud-based advanced threat analysis tools into the C2C program’s portfolio of capabilities and adding further value on DoD’s zero trust journey,” added Mainz. “We’ve really just begun to unleash the power of our platform within the DoD. The best is still ahead.”

Last month, Forescout announced integrations with Microsoft Sentinel as part of a broader initiative to support the Microsoft Security portfolio. These integrations will deliver real-time visibility, threat management, and incident response across the extended enterprise: campus, data center, remote workers, cloud, mobile, IoT, OT, and IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) endpoints.

Industrial Cyber News Desk

Industrial Cyber News Desk