Jun 17, 2023
A look at CISA's latest Binding Operational Directive and its implications for federal agencies as they seek to secure their networking equipment.
A new Binding Operational Directive (BOD 23-02) has been issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and it's honing in on restricting access to the management interfaces of networking equipment.
Which devices are under the microscope? A broad spectrum, including routers, switches, firewalls, VPN servers, proxies, load balancers, and even those sophisticated out-of-band server management interfaces like iLo and iDRAC. All these are now squarely in CISA's viewfinder.
The BOD takes into account various protocols, covering HTTPS, SSH, SMB, RDP, and more. Think of it as an exclusive guest list, but only for the internal networks!
Federal agencies have a ticking clock. They've been given a 14-day deadline to extract these management interfaces from the internet and ensure they're accessible solely within their internal networks.
But CISA won't just be issuing directives and hoping for the best. They'll be actively inspecting what they expect, scanning the networks of federal civilian agencies for any devices with exposed management interfaces. Once they pinpoint them, they'll be sending notifications to administrators, functioning like your friendly cyber neighborhood watch.
So, federal agencies, be ready for these notifications arriving within the next 30 days. It's time to tighten the security measures and solidify your defenses!