Developing a Security Data Lake at CMS

About CMS

As a federal agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides federal health programs to more than half of all Americans. Within the agency, the Information Security and Privacy Group (ISPG) is responsible for providing cybersecurity and privacy policy analysis, developing security technologies, system security configuration guidance, and operational defense of 250+ systems operated in more than 50 data centers. In doing so, ISPG provides leadership across CMS in managing information security and privacy risks appropriate to meet the evolving cyber threat environment. As a result of this work, ISPG enables the safe and authorized use of sensitive information in support of CMS’ commitment to strengthening the American healthcare system by improving the quality of care and lowering healthcare costs.

The challenge

A U.S. Digital Corps cybersecurity Fellow works with the CMS Information Security and Privacy Group (ISPG) supporting the engineering team developing a security data analytics platform. Known as the Security Data Lake (SDL), the platform serves as a centralized repository to store, process, and secure large amounts of data while providing data enrichment capabilities to improve fidelity and usefulness.

As part of this initiative, the Fellow facilitates the cross-functional collaboration necessary to coordinate efforts, understand use cases, and onboard data sources onto the platform.

The impact

The SDL breaks down data silos and empowers information security teams with the data they need, when they need it, transforming security operations across the enterprise. By providing an accessible, cost-effective, centrally governed, multi-tenant data repository, the SDL offers actionable intelligence, threat detection, and other opportunities to enhance CMS’ security posture.