At the crux of SISA lies a secure end-to-end, commercial off-the-shelf architecture that was created to make data easily, and securely, shared among multinational environments. SISA promises to greatly improve the way government organizations store, access, move, and share data.

For example, with SISA security measures in place a command center workstation connected to the network will display a standard login screen that uses Microsoft Active Directory to access a user profile. Based on the user’s login credentials and security posture, the command center can designate which parts of the network, applications, and content the user may access.

After the user is authorized and assigned to the appropriate VLAN, Cisco Security Agent protects the workstation by using behavior-based defenses to detect and block abnormal activity before it can cause damage. The user can now access the familiar suite of Microsoft and other agency applications and collaborate and share files for which that user has been authorized. Access to specific resources—such as CD-ROMs, write capabilities, serial ports, and USB devices—may be restricted by policies implemented through Cisco Security Agent. Content contained within emails and documents is protected using Liquid Machines and Microsoft Rights Management Services (RMS), which are also integrated with the content management features of SharePoint.