Government

Government and public sector IT systems are diverse and widespread. Continuity and security of operations are always paramount concerns. Accessibility to services must be guaranteed, but at the same time balanced with the fundamental need to maintain the security of sensitive information and the privacy of personal information.

IT professionals in the government and public sector community rely on the Sourcefire 3D® System to:

• Protect the nation’s critical infrastructure and sensitive data. Government entities are directly responsible for many of the systems associated with the nation’s critical infrastructure, and indirectly responsible for many more as a result of being charged with the governance of associated commercial organizations. Furthermore, military and associated intelligence organizations routinely handle highly classified information. In many cases, the computing functions being conducted on government networks represent a level of criticality and sensitivity that far exceeds that associated with the networks of typical commercial organizations.

• Maintain public confidence and protect citizen information. However, it is not just those entities involved with critical infrastructure or secret information that are subject to a higher standard. Essentially all government organizations, by virtue of being “of and for the people”—not to mention their source of funding—are, as a result, subject to a greater degree of public accountability and scrutiny than most commercial companies.

• Meet mounting regulatory requirements. The regulatory atmosphere in federal, state, and local government is often difficult to navigate. Sorting through and rationalizing the various layers of legal requirements, oversight activities, and well-intentioned (but often disjointed and overlapping) initiatives can be downright overwhelming. In the United States, there are upwards of 100 statutes, executive orders, and statements of policy that pertain to information systems run by federal government agencies or their contractors. The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, the President’s Management Agenda, the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, and various security and performance scorecards periodically issued by the Government Accountability Office are just a few of the items for which federal agencies must account.