What is FISMA compliance?

More context

The ATO is not a one-time gate. Post-authorization, agencies must monitor controls on an ongoing basis, and configuration management and continuous monitoring control families in NIST 800-53 expect systems to be maintained against approved baselines with deviations detected and handled.

CIS Benchmarks are a widely used way to implement configuration baselines under 800-53. CISGuard supports FISMA-driven programs with continuous scanning mapped to NIST 800-53, drift detection against approved baselines, exception management for documented deviations, and on-premises or air-gapped deployment for environments where SaaS tooling is not permitted.