The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published the second version of Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture (TRA), which strengthens guidance to fulfill a key mandate under President Biden’s Executive Order (EO) 14028 — “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity.”

The Cloud Services TRA is designed to guide agencies’ secure migration to the cloud by defining and clarifying considerations for shared services, cloud migration and cloud security posture management. 

As the Federal Government, along with organizations across sectors, continues to migrate to the cloud, it is paramount that agencies implement measures to protect it. The Cloud Security TRA, co-authored by CISA, the United States Digital Service (USDS), and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), provides foundational guidance for an organization to use the public cloud more securely and improve the ability of the federal government to identify, detect, protect, respond and recover from cyber incidents. 

“As the nation’s cyber defense agency, CISA works collaboratively with our interagency partners to implement improvements that make our federal civilian agencies more resilient to cyber threats,” said Eric Goldstein, Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity, CISA. “The updated Cloud Security TRA is a key step forward for each agency’s transition to the cloud environment. CISA and our partners will continue to provide expert, coherent, and timely guidance to help agencies modernize their networks with sound cybersecurity and resilience to protect against evolving cyber adversaries. While the TRA was developed for federal agencies, all organizations using or migrating to cloud environments should review this document and adopt the practices therein as applicable to most effectively manage organizational risk.”

In consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, the three agencies adjudicated more than 300 public comments received in September 2021. This feedback helped to further strengthen the Cloud Security TRA and fully address a host of considerations for secure cloud migration. A summary of the feedback received, as well as a Response to Comments (RTC), is available in the Response to Comments for Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture.