[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 241 (Monday, December 18, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60026-60027]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-27114]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY


The Department of Homeland Security, Stakeholder Engagement & 
Cyber Infrastructure Resilience Division (SECIR)

AGENCY: National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), Department 
of Homeland Security (DHS).

ACTION: 30-Day notice and request for comments; new information 
collection request: 1670--NEW.

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SUMMARY: The DHS NPPD Office of Cybersecurity and Communications 
(CS&C), SECIR, will submit the following information collection request 
(ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. DHS 
previously published this ICR in the Federal Register on Tuesday, July 
18, 2017 at 82 FR 32859 for a 60-day public comment period. Ten 
comments from two commenters were received by DHS. The purpose of this 
notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comments.

DATES: Comments are encouraged and will be accepted until January 17, 
2018. This process is conducted in accordance with 5 CFR part 1320.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on 
the proposed information collection to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, OMB. You may send comments, identified by the words 
``Department of Homeland Security'' and ``OMB Control Number 1670--NEW 
(IT Sector Survey)'', by:
    [cir] Email: [email protected]. Include ``Department of 
Homeland Security'' and ``OMB Control Number 1670--NEW (IT Sector 
Survey)'' in the subject line of the message.
    Instructions: Comments submitted in response to this notice may be 
made available to the public through relevant websites. For this 
reason, please do not include in your comments information of a 
confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or 
proprietary information. If you send an email comment, your email 
address will be automatically captured and included as part of the 
comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the 
internet. Please note that responses to this public comment request 
containing any routine notice about the confidentiality of the 
communication will be treated as public comments that may be made 
available to the public notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine 
notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact Reggie McKinney at 703-705-6277 
or at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 227 of the Homeland Security Act of 
2002 authorizes the National Cybersecurity and Communications 
Integration Center (NCCIC) within NPPD as a ``Federal civilian 
interface for the multi-directional and cross-sector sharing of 
information related to . . . cybersecurity risks.'' 6 U.S.C. 148(c)(1). 
This authority applies to Federal and non-Federal entities, including 
the private sector, small and medium businesses, sectors of critical 
infrastructure, and information sharing organizations. This provision 
includes the authority to receive, analyze and disseminate information 
about cybersecurity risks and incidents and to provide guidance, 
assessments, incident response support, and other technical assistance 
upon request and codifies NPPD's coordinating role among Federal and 
non-Federal entities. 6 U.S.C. 148.
    As part of its information sharing responsibilities with non-
Federal entities, the National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal 
Year 2017 (NDAA) amended the Homeland Security Act to authorize the 
Department to specifically focus on small businesses. See Public Law 
114-328 (2016). Specifically, the NDAA authorizes NPPD, through the 
Secretary, to ``leverage small business development centers to provide 
assistance to small business concerns by disseminating information on 
cyber threat indicators, defense measures, cybersecurity risks, 
incidents, analyses, and warnings to help small business concerns in 
developing or enhancing cybersecurity infrastructure, awareness of 
cyber threat indicators, and cyber training programs for employees.'' 
See 6 U.S.C. 148(l)(1); see also 15 U.S.C. 648(a)(8)(A) (similarly 
authorizing DHS ``and any other Federal department or agency in 
coordination with the Department of Homeland Security'' to ``leverage 
small business concerns by disseminating information relating to 
cybersecurity risks and other homeland security matters to help small 
business concerns in developing or enhancing cybersecurity 
infrastructure, awareness of cyber threat indicators, and cyber 
training programs for employees'').
    Consistent with these authorities, E.O. 13636 directs the 
Department to increase its cybersecurity information sharing efforts 
with the private sector and consult on and promote the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. 
To facilitate the Department's promotion of the NIST Cybersecurity 
Framework, the E.O. directs the Secretary to establish a voluntary 
program to support the adoption of the Framework in coordination with 
Sector Specific Agencies, which in turn ``shall coordinate with Sector 
Coordinating Councils to review the Cybersecurity Framework and, if 
necessary, develop implementation guidance or supplemental materials to 
address sector-specific risks and operating environments.'' E.O. 13636, 
78 FR 11739 (2013).

[[Page 60027]]

    Accordingly, the Information Technology (IT) Sector, represented by 
industry via the IT Sector Coordinating Council (SCC) and by government 
via the IT Government Coordinating Council (GCC), established the IT 
Sector Small and Midsized Business (SMB) Cybersecurity Best Practices 
Working Group (``Working Group'') to develop best practices for 
implementing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework in the SMB community. The 
Working Group, which consists of industry and government 
representatives, developed the SMB Cybersecurity Survey to determine 
return on investment (ROI) metrics for NIST Cybersecurity Framework 
adoption among SMB stakeholders. This process will assess the 
effectiveness of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. This process will 
also establish a baseline for ROI metrics, which have not previously 
existed in the SMB community. The IT Sector-Specific Agency (SSA), 
headquartered in DHS NPPD CS&C, is supporting the Working Group's 
survey development.
    DHS is not administering, controlling or soliciting the collection 
of the information via the survey. The IT SCC will administer the 
survey and anonymize the data, which will then be sent to DHS for 
analysis. As part of the survey process, the IT SCC will collect point 
of contact (POC) information but will not include that information on 
the anonymized dataset they submit to DHS. As specified in more detail 
below, the IT SCC will not only anonymize the data but will also remove 
any personally identifiable information (PII) from the data prior to 
transmitting to DHS. DHS will aid with the statistical analysis where 
needed, but would not be working with the individual responses to the 
questionnaire.
    The questionnaire will be distributed to SMBs and is a two-part 
survey. Questions 1-11 of the survey are for an organization's 
leadership, as these questions pertain to high level information about 
the company (core function, number of employees, etc.). The remaining 
questions are intended for the Chief Information Security Officer 
(CISO) or appropriate IT staff, as these questions are technical and 
ask about the IT security of the company.
    As identified above, once the survey is administered by the private 
sector partners of the IT SCC to the member organizations, the private 
sector partners of the IT SCC will compile the collected raw inputs and 
will (a) assign unique random identifiers to each of the responses, (b) 
scrub any PII from the microdata, (c) conduct quality assurance against 
the raw input. These processing steps (a-c) will be implemented PRIOR 
to transmitting the resulting dataset to DHS for statistical analysis. 
This survey represents a new collection.
    DHS will use anonymized data to conduct their analysis. The intent 
is for DHS to only receive derivative products--anonymized micro-
dataset to come up with the summary statistics, or aggregated summary 
results. The analysis will determine ROI information for NIST 
Cybersecurity Framework adoption in the SMB community. The results of 
this analysis will be available to the SMB community to develop best 
practices on how to use the Cybersecurity Framework for business 
protection and risk management.
    OMB is particularly interested in comments that:
    1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and
    4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submissions of responses.
    Title of Collection: The Department of Homeland Security, 
Stakeholder Engagement & Cyber Infrastructure Resilience Division.
    OMB Control Number: 1670--NEW.
    Frequency: Once every five years.
    Affected Public: Private sector, Small & Midsize Businesses.
    Number of Respondents: 1,000 annually.
    Estimated Time per Respondent: 30 minutes.
    Total Burden Hours: 500 annual burden hours.
    Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.
    Total Recordkeeping Burden: $0.
    Total Burden Cost (operating/maintaining): $0.

David Epperson,
Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017-27114 Filed 12-15-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 9110-9P-P