For US federal organizations, safeguarding data and ensuring national security are paramount. In this critical mission, DISA Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) play an important role, providing a standardized framework for cybersecurity best practices across technologies. For data leaders within these agencies, understanding and implementing STIG compliance is not just a regulatory obligation, but a strategic imperative.
What are STIGs?
Developed by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), STIGs are a set of technical configuration standards designed to enhance the security of information systems and software. They provide detailed guidance on how to secure operating systems, applications, databases, and network devices, effectively reducing the attack surface and mitigating potential cyber threats. The focus is on establishing robust security baselines that protect against known vulnerabilities and ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data.
Why STIGs are crucial for US federal agencies
The importance of STIGs for federal agencies cannot be overstated:
- Ensuring national security and protecting sensitive data: STIGs are important for national security, providing the technical specifications required to protect classified and controlled unclassified information (CUI) from cyber attacks.
- Compliance with federal regulations: Adherence to STIGs is often a prerequisite for compliance with federal regulations such as the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA). This helps ensure agencies meet their legal and ethical obligations for data protection.
- Mitigating cyber threats and vulnerabilities: By implementing STIGs, federal organizations proactively address and mitigate a wide range of cyber threats, including malware, unauthorized access and data breaches.
- Standardizing security configurations: STIGs provide a consistent approach to security across diverse agency systems, simplifying auditing processes and improving overall agency security posture.
Collibra's commitment to STIG compliance
At Collibra Public Sector, we recognize the critical importance of STIG compliance for our federal customers, as well as other highly regulated industries. Our proactive approach demonstrates our commitment to meeting stringent government security standards:
- Security first mindset: You compliance and ability to execute are always top of mind for Collibra Public Sector with STIG controls as a guiding principal for our development
- Ongoing security efforts: Through regular 3rd party findings reviews with every major release, we demonstrate our commitment to ongoing security enhancements and continuous improvement.
- Dedication to US federal customer needs: Our focus is on providing solutions that not only meet, but exceed the security expectations of our federal clients, enabling them to achieve their mission-critical objectives with confidence.
- Aligning with government security mandates: We actively work to ensure our offerings are in full alignment with government security mandates, providing a trusted and compliant data and AI governance platform.
- Clear documentation of customers responsibilities: When implementing/configuring infrastructure in support of Collibra deployment and the Collibra platform itself, Collibra documents in detail how to do so in a STIG compliant fashion
The value proposition for US federal agencies
For federal data leaders, Collibra Public Sector’s commitment to STIG compliance translates into significant benefits:
- Reduced risk: By minimizing the attack surface and enhancing data protection, we help federal agencies significantly reduce their exposure to cyber threats.
- Accelerated time to mission: A STIG ready platform with clearly documented customer responsibilities streamlines the process to deployment in production.
- Continuous ATO: On-going STIG adherent releases keeps your deployment running, reducing the need to re-do your ATO
- Operational efficiency: We help save valuable time and resources on security hardening and auditing, allowing agencies to focus on mission success.
- Trust and confidence: Our adherence to stringent government security standards provides assurance that Collibra Public Sector is a reliable and trustworthy partner for secure data and AI governance.
- Enhanced interoperability: Ensuring compatibility with other STIG-compliant government systems, Collibra Public Sector facilitates seamless integration within the broader federal IT ecosystem.
The impact of STIG compliance on data and AI governance
STIG compliance strengthens the Collibra Platform, enabling secure data and AI governance for federal agencies:
- Protecting data at rest and in transit: Our platform is designed to protect data throughout its lifecycle, whether it's stored or actively being transmitted, ensuring its integrity and confidentiality.
- Ensuring data integrity and confidentiality: By adhering to STIG guidelines, we reinforce the integrity of your data, preventing unauthorized alteration, and uphold its confidentiality, restricting access to authorized personnel only.
Empowering federal agencies
Through secure and compliant data management, Collibra Public Sector empowers federal agencies to:
- Support mission-critical operations with robust security: Our robust security measures provide the foundation for mission-critical operations, ensuring continuity and resilience in the face of evolving cyber threats.
- Facilitate informed decision-making with trusted data: By ensuring the trustworthiness of data, we enable data leaders to make informed decisions that support their agency's mission.
- Deploy reliable AI: Trusted, reliable and secure data will help agencies ensure AI models and agents can be deployed with confidence, helping to create better citizen services and warfighter outcomes.
We will help guide you to ATO success and compliance clarity
We don't just hand you documentation, we partner with you to ensure these results lead directly to accelerated authorization and deployment.
- We deliver vetted ATO artifacts: We provide the Letter of Attestation from 3rd party, specialized, independent auditor and the Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM). These two critical documents serve as the primary evidence your security team needs to mark Collibra's application controls as "Inherited" in your RMF package.
- We supply the RTM compliance roadmap: The RTM is designed to be your definitive guide. It clearly maps every ASD STIG control to our implementation, allowing your security team to efficiently complete their assessment and drastically reduce their Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M).
- We offer compliance guidance: We stand ready to schedule a dedicated briefing between your Security team and our compliance experts. We will walk your Security team through the RTM and proactively guide you on the specific controls that remain your responsibility, ensuring your team focuses efforts exactly where they need for a fast ATO.
Beyond DoD compliance: Why the ASD STIG matters to every highly regulated industry
While the Application Security and Development (ASD) STIG is required for our Public Sector clients, we view it as the ultimate security gold standard. Our investment in meeting this standard proves that Collibra is not just compliant for the DoD—it's secure by design for all highly regulated industries.
- Highest security bar inherited: By aligning with the ASD STIG, we ensure our solution is built to meet the U.S. DoD's requirements—widely considered the most stringent security standards in the world. You start with an unparalleled level of application hardening, instantly raising your security baseline.
- Proof of "security by design": Our independent, third-party review helps validate that security is built into the core of our platform, not bolted on. The ASD STIG specifically verifies secure coding standards and development practices across the entire software lifecycle, reducing your inherent risk.
- Commitment to continuous compliance: Achieving this compliance signals our ongoing dedication to security. It confirms we maintain a continuous compliance program committed to adapting quickly to the latest threat intelligence and regulatory changes, helping to future-proof your investment.
To learn more about Collibra Public Sector’s STIG compliance, please reach out directly to your account representative. You can also read the letter of attestation for our 2025.10 release here.
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Collibra
Collibra Public Sector
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