Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Podcast Series

Brett Tucker, a technical manager for cyber risk in the SEI CERT Division, discusses the Operationally Critical Threat, Asset, and Vulnerability Evaluation for the Enterprise (OCTAVE FORTE) Model, which helps organizations evaluate security risks and use principles of enterprise risk management to bridge the gap between executives and practitioners. In this SEI Podcast, Tucker outlines OCTAVE FORTE's 10-step framework to guide organizations in managing risk.

If organizations take more steps to address security-related activities now, they will be less likely to encounter security incidents in the future. When it comes to application containers, security is achieved through adopting a series of best practices and guidelines. In this SEI Podcast, Tom Scanlon and Richard Laughlin, researchers with the SEI's CERT Division, discuss seven steps that developers can take to engineer security into ongoing and future container adoption efforts.

In this SEI Podcast, Marisa Midler and Tim Shimeall, network defense analysts within the SEI's CERT Division, discuss the growing problem of ransomware including the rise of ransomware as a service threats. Ransom payments from Quarter 3 of 2019 were on average $42,000, and in Quarter 1 of 2020, that average increased $70,000 to $112,000. The volume of attacks also increased by 25 percent in Quarter 4 of 2019 and by another 25 percent in Quarter 1 of 2020. The sophistication of the attacks has increased alongside their severity. Midler and Shimeall discuss steps and strategies that organizations can adopt to minimize their exposure to the risks and threats associated with ransomware.

Software vulnerability coordination at the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) has traditionally relied on a hub-and-spoke model, with reports submitted to analysts at the CERT/CC analysts who would then work with contact affected vendors. To scale communications and increase the level of collaboration between vulnerability reporters, coordinators, and software vendors, the CERT/CC team has created a web-based platform for software vulnerability reporting and coordination called the Vulnerability Information and Coordination Environment (VINCE). In this SEI Podcast, Emily Sarneso, the architect of VINCE, and Art Manion, technical manager of the Vulnerability Analysis Team in the SEI's CERT Division, discuss the rollout of VINCE, how to use it, and future work in vulnerability coordination.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced significant changes in enterprise work practices, including an increased use of telecommunications technologies required by the new work-from-home policies that most organizations have instituted in response. In this podcast, Phil Groce, a senior network defense analyst in the CERT Division of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, discusses the security implications of this dramatic increase in the number of people in organizations who are working from home, examines the threats and vulnerabilities associated with the increase in remote work, and offers practical solutions to individuals and enterprises for operating securely in this new environment.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 1.0 for Defense Industrial Base (DIB) suppliers defines specific cybersecurity practices across five levels of maturity while also measuring the degree to which those practices are institutionalized within an organization. The CMMC model draws on maturity processes and cybersecurity best practices from multiple standards, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) frameworks and references, as well as input from DIB entities and the Department of Defense. CMMC requires that DIB organizations complete an assessment of all CMMC practices at a particular level and become certified by a CMMC third-party assessment organization. When fully implemented, CMMC will require all DIB companies to achieve certification at one of the five CMMC levels, which includes both technical security practices and maturity processes. In this SEI Podcast, Andrew Hoover and Katie Stewart, researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute and architects of the model, discuss the CMMC assessment guides, how they were developed, and how they can be used.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 1.0 for Defense Industrial Base (DIB) suppliers defines specific cybersecurity practices across five levels of maturity while also measuring the degree to which those practices are institutionalized within an organization. The CMMC model draws on maturity processes and cybersecurity best practices from multiple standards, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) frameworks and references, as well as input from DIB entities and the Department of Defense. CMMC requires that DIB organizations complete an assessment of all CMMC practices at a particular level and become certified by a CMMC third-party assessment organization. When fully implemented, CMMC will require all DIB companies to achieve certification at one of the five CMMC levels, which includes both technical security practices and maturity processes. In this SEI podcast, Andrew Hoover and Katie Stewart, architects of the CMMC model and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, discuss the Level 3 Assessment Guide for the CMMC and how it differs from the Level 1 Assessment Guide.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 1.0 for Defense Industrial Base (DIB) suppliers defines specific cybersecurity practices across five levels of maturity while also measuring the degree to which those practices are institutionalized within an organization. The CMMC model draws on maturity processes and cybersecurity best practices from multiple standards, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) frameworks and references, as well as input from DIB entities and the Department of Defense. CMMC requires that DIB organizations complete an assessment of all CMMC practices at a particular level and become certified by a CMMC third-party assessment organization. When fully implemented, CMMC will require all DIB companies to achieve certification at one of the five CMMC levels, which includes both technical security practices and maturity processes. In this SEI Podcast, Andrew Hoover and Katie Stewart, architects of the CMMC model, discuss the Level 1 Assessment Guide for the CMMC.

Authority to Operate (ATO) is a process that certifies a system to operate for a certain period of time by evaluating the risk of the system's security controls. ATO is based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Risk Management Framework (NIST 800-37). In this podcast, Shane Ficorilli and Hasan Yasar, both with the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, discuss continuous ATO, including challenges, the role of DevSecOps, and cultural issues that organizations must address.

A pervasive belief in software engineering is that some programmers are much, much better than others (the times-10, or 10x, programmer), and that the skills, abilities, and talents of these programmers exert an outsized influence on that organizations' success or failure. Bill Nichols, a researcher with the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, recently examined the veracity and relevance of this widely held notion. Using data from a study conducted at the SEI, Nichols found evidence that not only challenges the idea that some programmers are inherently far more skilled or productive than others but that the truth if far more nuanced.