FISMA Role and Responsibilities

The assignment of roles and responsibilities for information security within the federal government was clarified or reiterated within FISMA to cover policy, procurement, standards, and incident response. Although FISMA was the last major legislative framework, over the years the foundation has been built upon by a series of Executive Orders, directives, policies, regulations, standards and guidelines. Within FISMA, several specific roles were identified: 

• Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

• Federal Agencies:

• Head of Agency or equivalent.

• Chief Information Officer (CIO).

• Senior Agency Information Security Officer (SAISO).

• Secretary of Defense (SecDef).

• Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).