Episode 6 — Differentiate JAB and Agency
This episode explains the practical differences between pursuing a Joint Authorization Board (JAB) Provisional Authorization to Operate and working with a single federal agency for an Agency Authorization to Operate. We begin by clarifying objectives: the JAB route aims at broad governmentwide reuse and therefore emphasizes uniform risk posture across diverse missions, while an Agency ATO addresses a specific mission sponsor’s needs and risk tolerance. We connect these aims to tangible implications—candidate selection for JAB, expectation of mature capabilities at onboarding, and heavier evidence rigor in areas such as boundary clarity, inherited controls, vulnerability management, and supply-chain transparency. We also describe cadence and oversight mechanics: JAB review cycles, PMO coordination, and the additional governance layers that shape timelines, evidence format, and change control during and after assessment.
Building on that foundation, we compare day-to-day execution concerns. For JAB, you should anticipate deeper scrutiny of multi-tenant isolation, configuration baselines, scanning quality, and defect aging trends because reuse exposes more constituents to common failure modes. For Agency paths, you should plan for sponsor-specific integrations, interconnection agreements, and mission-aligned compensating controls, coupled with the possibility of future reuse by additional agencies if documentation is strong. We outline selection signals, readiness indicators, and go-no-go checkpoints to avoid stalled packages, then show how monthly continuous monitoring expectations differ in practice—especially around exception handling, significant change notifications, and annual testing scopes. The result is a clear decision framework that aligns business objectives, readiness level, and review expectations to the appropriate authorization path. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.
