FISMA: Despite Weaknesses, USADF Generally Implemented an Effective Information Security Program for Fiscal Year 2024

Why We Did This Audit

• We contracted with the independent certified public accounting firm of RMA Associates LLC (RMA) to conduct an audit of the U.S. African Development Foundation’s (USADF’s) information security program in support of the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) and in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
• FISMA requires federal agencies to develop, document, and implement an agency-wide information security program to protect their information and information systems. FISMA also requires the agency Inspectors General (IGs) to assess the effectiveness of agency information security programs and practices and report the results of the assessments to the Office of Management and Budget.
• The audit objective was to determine whether USADF implemented an effective information security program.

What We Found

• RMA concluded that USADF generally implemented an effective information security program. However, RMA found weaknesses in five of nine IG FISMA metric domains.
• RMA also determined that USADF took final corrective action on one open recommendation from the FY2021 FISMA audit, but Agency management had not submitted a request to close it.

Why It Matters

• FISMA provides a comprehensive framework for ensuring effective security controls over information resources supporting Federal operations and assets.
• We made seven new recommendations to address the weaknesses identified in the report.  USADF concurred with the recommendations.