PNNL

Abstract

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2019, the U.S. federal and state governments, employers, and foreign governments enacted significant measures to restrict international travel. To further reduce the possibility of spreading the infectious disease, many employers in both the public and private domain instituted measures allowing employees to work remotely from home, where possible. In support of these measures, International Nuclear Security initiated the Remote Cybersecurity Inspection project to explore methods and tools to perform computer security assessments remotely and assist international partners in developing this capability. In 2022, the pandemic eased and the world started a return to the former way of doing business. However, the project team realized that conducting remote inspections, even if performed partially, resulted in significant savings of resources through reduced travel costs and increased staff efficiency. New team members reflect the continued and increased interest in remote cybersecurity inspections. This document summarizes the fiscal year 2022 efforts. Section 1 of this report describes the motivation and process used in selecting a single international standard as a test case for guidance development. Once the standard was selected, an initial review was performed to assess the applicability of remote inspection of each listed control.