Microsoft, Tenable Team up to Support Government Cyber Efforts

Tech firms Microsoft and Tenable have partnered in an effort to improve the nation’s cybersecurity posture.

A blog post Thursday authored by Ann Johnson, Microsoft corporate vice president of security, compliance and identity, explains the partnership, which stems in part from President Biden’s executive order on cybersecurity issued May 12, 2021.

“In the spirit of the EO and as part of our commitment to enhancing cybersecurity across the United States, we today announce that Tenable has expanded its collaboration with the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association,” Johnson said. “Tenable is a pioneer in the risk management market and creator of Nessus, one of the most widely deployed vulnerability assessment solutions in the cybersecurity industry. Together, Microsoft and Tenable will help enhance the United States government’s ability to quickly identify, investigate, prioritize and remediate threats—and help collectively raise the country’s security posture.”

According to Johnson, federal agencies stand to benefit from the companies’ “tighter collaboration, enhanced information sharing and integrations.” Specifically, the companies will work to integrate Tenable.io with Microsoft’s Defender for Cloud and Sentinel solutions “to support vulnerability assessments for hybrid cloud workloads and use FedRAMP moderate.” FedRAMP, or the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, is a governmentwide program that standardizes cloud security.

“Microsoft’s collaboration with Tenable will strengthen agencies’ ability to identify and respond to risk at scale and extends beyond government,” Johnson said.

In a statement, Glen Pendley, Tenable’s chief technology officer, said his company’s collaboration with Microsoft directly supports President Biden’s executive order on cybersecurity, calling out the importance that strong cyber hygiene and visibility of IT assets plays in zero trust initiatives. Both companies are also industry partners in the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, established by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

“Our collaboration with Microsoft supports the EO and CISA, both with respect to JCDC and Shields Up, helping federal agencies advance their Zero Trust objectives and improve resilience,” Pendley said.