Improve Your Cybersecurity Posture in One Year with StateRAMP

Published February 13, 2024

by Jordan Hickam

Improving Your Cybersecurity Posture in One Year with StateRAMP

While it’s a relative newcomer to the world of cloud risk management, StateRAMP has emerged as a powerful resource and standardized approach to security and risk assessment management. Public agency RFPs may require service providers to obtain StateRAMP certification for their products or services to receive consideration. Earning a StateRAMP security status helps organizations that need to enhance their cybersecurity posture to work with state and local governments or within public education institutions.

What is StateRAMP?

While strengthening a security posture isn’t an immediate or one-time transaction, StateRAMP stems from a “complete once, use many” concept that saves time and cuts costs for both service providers and public sector entities. With verified vendors and authorized products certified by StateRAMP, governments and procurement officials can have confidence in providers’ capabilities without requiring repetitive additional assessments in each jurisdiction.

As of December 2023, nearly three dozen states, local government agencies, and public school systems or universities have already engaged with StateRAMP, adopting standards that ensure their organizations procure effective and efficient cloud security solutions from a verified vendor community.

Just as FedRAMP authorizes providers to work with the federal government, StateRAMP uses similar standards and NIST guidance to ensure providers at the state and local levels protect citizen data, save taxpayer and service provider dollars, and lessen the burden on procurement personnel while promoting cybersecurity awareness and best practices.

What is the StateRAMP Process?

With many wide-ranging products and services from a diverse pool of providers and organizations of various sizes or in unique industries, the time required for organizations to navigate and complete StateRAMP certification can vary dramatically. StateRAMP is, by design, flexible and scalable. Organizations can implement security controls based on the specific requirements of their cloud services. As a result, the efforts and time required for certification can differ significantly from one organization to another.

The time required of organizations to achieve a StateRAMP status can depend on several factors, including the complexity of their IT infrastructure, the readiness of their security controls, or familiarity with similar certification processes.

StateRAMP certification can take as little as a few weeks. However, on average, assessing, preparing, and implementing necessary security controls can take several months or up to a year or more.

Providers’ products, services, or offerings with federal authorization are eligible for the StateRAMP Fast Track process, which can take weeks instead of months. The StateRAMP project management office (PMO) accepts and authenticates all the required security documentation previously used for federal authorization.

Steps to Achieve and Maintain StateRAMP Certification

Become a Member. With or without Fast Track-eligible products or services under federal authorization or review, providers must first become StateRAMP members before engaging with the PMO or a third-party assessment organization (3PAO).
Complete a StateRAMP Security Snapshot. A jumping-off point toward achieving a verified StateRAMP security status, the Security Snapshot assessment provides a gap analysis to validate a product or service’s security maturity needed to achieve StateRAMP’s minimum mandatory requirements. StateRAMP aims to complete its assessments to ascertain and deliver Snapshot scores within three weeks.
Engage an Approved Third-Party Assessment Organization (3PAO). Choose a qualified third-party assessor accredited by StateRAMP. Their initial readiness assessment may take up to four weeks. Providers must complete a collection of documentation, including security controls and plans of action, as well as any paperwork required to complete a StateRAMP Security Assessment Plan and Security Assessment Report. Engaging with a qualified 3PAO early in the process can help ensure a smoother and more efficient certification process.
Request StateRAMP Review. Your 3PAO partner will assemble and submit the authorization package to StateRAMP, which will review all documentation and assessment results while potentially asking for additional information before deciding. A StateRAMP security status is awarded following a 3PAO attesting to the provider’s security controls and the StateRAMP PMO verifying the findings. A government sponsor or the StateRAMP Approvals Committee, made up of government officials from across the country, must also authorize the provider’s security package.
Continuous Monitoring: Service providers must maintain a continuous monitoring program upon obtaining their StateRAMP security status.

The timeline required for each step in the process of enhancing your security posture with StateRAMP can vary based on factors such as the organization’s size, resources, or the complexity of its assorted cloud services. It’s common for providers to invest up to one year or longer in the StateRAMP process.

For companies and organizations looking to qualify for work with more state and local public sector entities, while it isn’t legally required or mandated by law nationwide, StateRAMP authorization is quickly becoming a competitive must-have for doing business in many states. Through careful planning, a trusted 3PAO partner, and a thorough understanding of the process’s timeline, providers can help streamline their StateRAMP authorization efforts.