Meeting, Exceeding, & Financing M-21-31

On Wednesday May 12, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order aimed at strengthening U.S. cybersecurity. The order was prompted by a series of sweeping cyberattacks on public companies, companies supplying the U.S. Federal Government, and Federal Government networks over the past year. This includes the 2020 SolarWinds attack and the most recent attack on the Colonial Pipeline by the hacker group DarkSide.

On the 28th of August 2021, a memorandum to the Executive Order was issued, emphasizing the need for reliable log management:

• In this joint advisory session with IBM, Four Inc., and Prophecy International, attendees will learn how to overcome some of the biggest challenges in meeting and exceeding the M-21-31 requirements, including budget constraints, financing, and avoiding significant changes to existing technology infrastructure.
• This session is primarily for cybersecurity stakeholders and decision makers in the US Federal Government and federal government supply chain.

Some of the key takeaways from this session will include:

• A brief state of the industry and the key milestones and requirements related to complying with Memorandum M-21-31
• An introduction to IBM’s cost model to level out CapEx expenditure
• Valuable insights on how to finance the technology and services required to comply with M-21-31
• An understanding of which critical technology solutions can help agencies and organizations receive Level 3 maturity without breaking the budget