Background and Challenge
For one federal civilian agency, efficiency and resilience are cornerstones of the mission — for their domestic and international operations. When agency leaders moved to streamline and strengthen their operations, they decided to split out their security operations center from the Information Assurance Office.
To ensure operational efficiency and cyber resilience, the agency sought a partner that could support both the technology and organizational changes that were needed. Leaders looked for an expert partner that would respectfully engage key stakeholders while helping align the two organizations’ processes, personnel, and technologies to better support the agency mission.
Agency leaders selected ShorePoint as a subcontractor on a new operations support contract, engaging the cyber services company to provide:
- Zero Trust, Information Assurance, and Cybersecurity Support
- Security Operations Center (SOC) Operations
- Security Capabilities Consulting
- Security Engineering
- Operations and Maintenance of security tools
- Vulnerability Management (to support continued modernization and enhancement of its IT infrastructure and governance)
Solution and Benefits
One of ShorePoint’s core corporate tenets is prioritization of stakeholder engagement. The team understood that success could only be achieved by starting with an understanding of each stakeholder’s equity and their stake in the mission.
In the initial 90 days, ShorePoint successfully transitioned the contract to the new partner. ShorePoint meticulously hand-selected 27 individuals for the information security team, carefully selecting critically thinking cybersecurity experts who were well-versed in their field and passionate about understanding how their efforts would contribute to the overall security infrastructure. The team embraced the processes, rapidly learned the necessary tools, and cultivated a culture of continuous learning and exceptional customer service.
The team then turned to the task of supporting the SOC move to the IT Operations organization, documenting stakeholder needs, mapping technologies, building processes, and formalizing clear communication protocols between the two offices. Regular touch points — meetings, chat groups, and phone calls — established healthy lines of communication. Team members were encouraged to over-communicate, especially in incident response scenarios, so important information didn’t get lost in translation. Frequent, transparent communication became a standard practice.
When assessing the agency’s technology and data, the team quickly realized there were numerous disparate and siloed systems, tools, and data sets. Despite an abundance of technology, security analysts and leaders did not have the information they needed to make sound decisions or act quickly. So, the team undertook the effort to systematically organize the data and make it useful for security purposes.
By the end of the contract period of performance, ShorePoint and the prime contractor partner delivered significant customer impact. The team:
- Facilitated the creation of a shared vision, aligned with the agency mission, across two technology organizations
- Provided a stabilizing force by establishing meaningful communication protocols that, today, guide operations management, reporting, and decision-making processes
- Stood up the new, successful SOC within the IT Operations organization
- Organized, streamlined, and optimized technologies, processes, and data to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness
Moving Forward
The team remains inspired by the agency’s mission and grateful for the positive, productive relationship with the prime partner. Together, the team is reminded that “Technology is technology. But it’s run by people.” Tremendous progress has been made to date, yet there is still more to do. The ShorePoint team has provided — and the customer has accepted — a maturity plan outlining next steps to build on the strong foundation now in place.
