NEWPORT – Salve Regina University’s Pell Center hosted a conference, “Navigating the Cyber Clause: A Practical Approach to Implementing the NIST Special Publication 800-171” on Dec. 6. The conference was held in collaboration with NeQter Labs – a division of McLaughlin Research Corp. – and the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance, both based in Middletown.
The conference, for defense contractors and subcontractors, discussed the National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-171 requirements, and how to implement them within their organizations.
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The Department of Defense issued guidance on compliance requirements for parts of a Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Clause on “Safeguarding Covered Defense Information and Cyber Incident Reporting,” according to a news release from Salve Regina University. Vendors providing services or products to the DoD are required to keep defense information secure, implementing NIST (SP) 800-171, “Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Non-federal Information Systems and Organizations,” no later than Dec. 31, according to the release.
The defense industry contributes about $3.7 billion annually to Rhode Island’s economy.
Ronald Ross, a fellow at NIST, discussed these new requirements and how they can be implemented as part of an organization’s cybersecurity and risk-management efforts.
A panel of experts was on hand to clear up misconceptions, share best practices and discuss continuing compliance and incident response.
“This effort is more than just meeting a requirement, it establishes good business practices that will provide an effective risk-management process for companies,” said Molly Donohue Magee, SENEDIA’s executive director.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributor.
