TeamsHub by Cyclotron for CJIS

Introduction

Protection of CJI (Criminal Justice Information) data and ensuring its accessibility to only authorized personnel is crucial for FBI officers. As cybercriminals are increasingly invasive, inflexible legacy IT systems are highly likely to impede workflows and create inefficiency in delivery of justice.

Any infringement while sharing confidential data such as crime-related statistics, investigation reports, criminal record history etc. while collaboration jeopardizes public safety and erodes public trust on institutions. So, how can intelligence officers accelerate CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) security efforts across all internal platforms and cloud services in use? How can relevant government entities capture and transmit CJI, build better cases, and speed up investigations staying compliant with CJIS security policy. Let’s explore.

To strengthen digital policing, CJIS department needs to implement some of the following important measures:

1. Create organization-wide Firewall

Safeguarding organization’s digital assets is one of the top-most priorities for government bodies handling CJI data. As critical information moves through elaborate workflows across various networks, applications, databases, and servers, system vulnerabilities and cyberthreats are inescapable. Apparently, the very first step to avoid dreadful consequences of it is to protect the entire business ecosystem by building digital gates.

2. Detect, Report and Control Incidents

Government organizations must prepare in advance to control an attempt of invasion that has occurred. With proper planning and implementation of right tools, threats can be tracked, identified, reported, eradicated, and recovered in a timely manner.

3. Access Control

Government organizations must implement role-based access control to enable restrictions to users based on their job type, location, IP address etc. It also helps in managing external collaborators.

4. Identification and Authentication

To comply with CJIS authentication standards, government organizations must use multi-factor authentication (MFA) which includes biometric data and set maximum login attempts to authenticate users.

5. Auditing and Accountability

Administrators must set content retention policies as per CJIS compliance requirements for legal requests and forensic analysis. They must constantly monitor the circulation of files and folders, login attempts, permission changes, etc. across an organization. All files and metadata containing all historical events must be preserved or archived to scrutinize the user’s authenticity.

6. Security Awareness Training for All Employees

Lack of due diligence and unethical conduct results in subjugating even the most secure digital environment to threats. Hence, employees who have access to CJI must be thoroughly trained to comply with CJIS security and compliance policies.

8. Communicate Without Failure

To handle CJI data, government organizations must safeguard communication protocols to combat unauthorized access by implementing perimeter security solutions such as anti-virus software, Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), etc. CJI also sets out certain standards to ensure end-to-end encryption of data, both in transit and in rest.

All of this indicates that the CJIS department needs a robust and scalable cloud computing solution. This is where Microsoft 365 GCC comes into picture. Let’s see how.

Confront Cyberattacks using Microsoft 365 GCC

Microsoft is committed to digitally transform and protect US government agencies by securing national data from targeted cyberattacks. Microsoft 365 Government Community Cloud (GCC) offerings include multi-factor authentication, federation, device management and enterprise mobility. Also, Microsoft’s specific policy on Incident Response can be incorporated into the agency’s policy. Additionally, Microsoft platform includes Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Active Directory federation, and other enterprise tools such as Intune and Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite to enhance the agency’s auditing capabilities, manage access control and validate identification and authentication.

Microsoft supports CJIS-compliant policies and procedures for encryption, monitoring inbound and outbound data flow from internal systems, intrusion detection, creating secure partition and virtual machines, patch management of their own physical assets, installing and maintaining anti-spyware and anti-malware,  and obtaining and taking appropriate corrective measures in response to security alerts.

You can download complete details on CJIS implementation guidelines for Microsoft Government Cloud Services by clicking here.

Meeting the enhanced compliance requirements for US government including CJIS, FedRAMP, IRS 1075 and DISA SRG L2, Microsoft empowers your IT infrastructure by:

• Protecting, detecting, and responding to cyberattacks using threat intelligence.
• Reducing burden on your team with automated remediation and investigation to restrain the impact of attack.
• Incorporating security tools such as Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection, Azure Active Directory and Exchange Online Protection to gain greater organizational visibility to mitigate vulnerabilities and risks while handling CJI data.
• Improving communication and collaboration using Microsoft Teams that provides a single space for teleworking, centralized file sharing, co-authoring and more.

Microsoft Teams in GCC for Enhanced Collaboration

Microsoft Teams in GCC environment is designed to match the enhanced security and compliance requirements of government agencies to help them achieve their mission and deliver services to citizens and constituents. Teams is an excellent platform for federal agencies to continue their critical operations flawlessly even in a remote environment without technical issues. By centralizing all communications such as one-on-one audio calls or group calls and chat messages, and video conferences using Teams, your employees can coordinate across different departments from anywhere using any device.

If you are planning to deploy Teams in Microsoft 365 Government environments in your organization, click here to learn more.

The good news about Teams is that it takes minimal time to implement and hence modernizing your agency is less burdensome. Additionally, it just includes basic training for effective adoption of the platform which eliminates user frustrations ensuring continuation of operational efficacy without delay.

TeamsHub by Cyclotron for CJIS

Though Microsoft Teams in GCC environment serves as a foundational tool for collaboration and productivity, it still lacks streamlined governance and automated provisioning. As government agencies deploy Microsoft Teams, administrators need to create projects, add or remove members, and configure policies manually. This leads to decreased efficiency & governance.

Considering the sensitivity of information exchanged between employees of CJIS department and day-to-day administration challenges faced by them, TeamsHub by Cyclotron has gone one step ahead in securing data and optimizing productivity by automating Teams. TeamsHub by Cyclotron provides appropriate controls to protect CJI data and intelligently tracks the activities and progress of teamwork within a digital workplace environment in real-time.

Hence, if you have Microsoft Teams, here are the some QnAs to elaborate why you need TeamsHub by Cyclotron on top of it:

Q1. Is TeamsHub by Cyclotron easy to operate?

Ans. TeamsHub by Cyclotron automates Teams governance and eliminates all manual provisions and processes. Administration is simpler and faster as it does not need prior knowledge or experience on complex PowerShell programming.

Q2. Why is TeamsHub by Cyclotron good for government organizations?

Ans. It allows comprehensive management and control over all information sharing activities with highest levels of data security and compliance.

Q3. How do TeamsHub by Cyclotron control collaboration with external users?

Ans. TeamsHub by Cyclotron controls collaboration with external users on different levels of access. It enables secure and efficient exchange of sensitive information with external parties by letting you track externally shared files and revoke permission, if required .

Q4. Can TeamsHub by Cyclotron help in locating information quickly?

Ans. Yes. TeamsHub by Cyclotron prevents content compartmentalization and lets you manage your content efficiently removing hassles in discovering and retaining content.

Q5. Does TeamsHub by Cyclotron authenticate applications?

Ans. TeamsHub by Cyclotron allows you to authenticate applications using encryption keys.

Q6. Does TeamsHub by Cyclotron offer analytics to catch organizational insights?

Ans. Yes. TeamsHub by Cyclotron lets you monitor teams’ activities and progress in your organization in real time through interactive dashboard and automated reports.

Q7. How can government employees collaborate on the go?

Ans. Using TeamsHub by Cyclotron, government employees can remotely access, view, co-create, update, and share content stored in on-premises and cloud repositories without having to download any files onto their phones.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, TeamsHub by Cyclotron is a complete collaboration solution that security leaders need to fulfill their core responsibilities. It is tailored to meet CJIS requirements following a wide range of privacy policies. TeamsHub by Cyclotron is greatly simplified and easy to adopt.

If you are a government organization, looking to revolutionize your workplace, please click here.