The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002. The Act was meant to bolster computer and network security within the Federal Government and affiliated parties (such as government contractors) by mandating yearly audits.

FISMA imposes a mandatory set of processes that must be followed for all information systems used or operated by a US Government federal agency or by a contractor or other organization on behalf of a US Government agency. These processes must follow a combination of Federal Information Processing standards (FIPS) documents, the special publications SP-800 series issued by NIST, and other legislation pertinent to federal information systems, such as the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Activeworx enables best practices and processes to be easily implemented and enforced to support the IT governance requirements of government agencies, while also addressing the more detailed requirements of those responsible for solution and service delivery. As a result, CIOs can optimize IT investments, ensure value delivery and mitigate IT risk in a transparent manner.

Activeworx automates the process of using log data to evidence and enforce policies outlined in FISMA through out-of-the-box reports and alerts – both easily customizable.
Enterprise data in the form of log files provides critical insight into the use of assets, risks and IT performance. In addition to servers and applications, much valuable information comes from mining the log data from corporate firewalls, VPN concentrators, web proxies, IDS systems, E-mail servers, backup systems and syslog devices. Activeworx’s heterogeneous collectors can collect some or all pertinent information from a wide range of sources.

Activeworx reports can be based on many aspects from specific devices, groups of devices, classifications, or even specific actions such as after hour’s logon activity. Its reporting engine is also optimized for speed and size, is 64 bit compatible and allows the ability to easily add reporting filters to custom tailor the reports for any environment.

Activeworx FISMA Benefits

• ROI - Typical return on investments (ROI) of 1-3 months based on reduced or eliminated consulting, personnel and infrastructure costs. 
• Correlate – Correlate data from devices including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, vulnerability assessment tools, operating system logs, application logs, identity management solutions, virtual private networks and more 
• Network Data - Easily deliver one-click network security reporting that provides relevant data in an intuitive format
• Monitor and Report - Separately monitor and report on events that involve regulated systems
• Automate - Easily increase protection while eliminating manual processes 
• Efficiency - Save valuable security analyst resources from tedious, manual tasks 
• Oversight - Enables active oversight, including automated reporting for HIPAA audit and compliance
• Log Management - Log all network events for long-term, auditable proof of compliance