CSIOS Corporation: Raising The Bar on U.S. Government Cyberspace Operations and Cybersecurity Services

Our mission is to solve our client’s most challenging and complex cyber problems, making their mission our mission, their priorities our priorities, and their objectives our call to action for delivering state-of-the-art best value solutions that endure: Cesar Pie

Cyber attacks. We are all hearing about them; we read about them daily and many of us have experienced them. Every day, they become a starker reality for all businesses and organizations – no matter the industry or size. While government, business leaders, and the media have been saying that cyber-attacks are no longer a question of if, but when, the clamor isn’t enough to minimize the harsh effects of these threats. Unfortunately for most, companies won’t know they have been hacked until it’s too late.

In light of the above-mentioned concern, we are thrilled to present CSIOS Corporation, a global leader in providing cyber-enabled business solutions and services in, through, and from cyberspace.

The firm is a holder of quadruple ISO certifications with a one-of-a-kind cyber scope: The ‘Provision of Cyberspace Operations (Defensive, Offensive, and Information Network Operations) and Cybersecurity services to U.S. Federal customers worldwide.’

Interview Excerpt: Cesar Pie, President/CEO

Tell us briefly about CSIOS Corporation and the services it provisions.

CSIOS Corporation is a Maryland-based veteran-owned small business provider of cyberspace operations and cybersecurity services to U.S. Government departments and agencies worldwide.

How does CSIOS ensure its cyber services meet its clients evolving operational threat environment?

Due to the criticality and sensitivity of the organizational missions we support, we saw the need to leverage ISO standards to formalize a process to continuously assess and improve the services we provision. In essence, as recommended by OMB Circular A–119, Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities, which among others encourages Federal agencies to use standards developed or adopted

by voluntary consensus standards bodies, CSIOS pursued the achievement of quadruple ISO certifications:  ISO 9001: 2015 (Quality Management System), ISO/IEC 20000–1: 2011 (Information Technology Service Management System), ISO 22301: 2012 (Business Continuity Management System), and ISO/IEC 27001: 2013 (Information Security Management System) to continually advance the services it delivers globally.

Would you say that is what makes the CSIOS brand valuable and unique?

Absolutely. In its pursuit of becoming one of the most valuable brands in the cyber arena, CSIOS Corporation saw ISO standards as a perfect complement for achieving brand differentiation. CSIOS Corporation is a holder of quadruple ISO certifications with a one–of–a–kind cyber scope: The ‘Provision of Cyberspace Operations (Defensive, Offensive, and Information Network Operations) and Cybersecurity services to U.S. Federal customers worldwide.’

ISO standards have complemented CSIOS’ cyberspace operations and cybersecurity services positively and significantly; in unison, they have added clear and concise requirements, specifications, and guidelines to consistently and accurately ensure CSIOS services are perfectly realized to meet our U.S. Federal customer’s mission and operational priorities.  By implementing a ‘plan, do, check, act’ best practice approach, CSIOS has established a proven and globally recognized continual assessment and improvement process-all essential for ensuring and maintaining the availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation of the information, information systems, and networks of the U.S. Government customers it supports. 

Today, the CSIOS brand is revered as a hallmark for cyberspace operations and cybersecurity services; its clients depend on its services to measure, test and monitor the competence and performance of their people, processes, and technologies.

How have CSIOS and its customers benefited from ISO–enhanced cyber services?

CSIOS Corporation has crafted an integrated management system framework for continual assessment and improvement process. Through this unique construct, our organization has been able to identify more efficient, effective, and time-saving management processes; improve incident response times; and minimize disruptions to cybersecurity services-all while reducing operating costs and continuing to maintain compliance with customer’s legislative and regulatory requirements. Equally important, as an organization, through its demonstrated accomplishment, CSIOS has reached new high levels of confidence when delivering its services; CSIOS’ attainment of quadruple ISO certifications has relayed a message of excellence to staff, customers, suppliers and stakeholders.

As it relates to our U.S. Federal customers, CSIOS’ culture of top-service-delivery-levels and right-first-time approach has instilled a higher degree of trust and credibility with and among its U.S. Government customers. CSIOS’ customers have benefited from its improved quality and service, quality assurance, and always-on-time delivery. Overall, CSIOS continual assessment and improvement process has allowed the company to persistently introduce, verify, and validate needed process changes and corrective actions to maintain high-level objectives of availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation.

In your opinion, what is the main cyber challenge faced by your customers?

It is no secret, the enormous size of U.S. Federal networks has made it an easier target for a growing number of cyber-attacks, which are becoming more sophisticated, aggressive, and dynamic. Every day, the largest attack-surface in the world, represented by these U.S. networks, are subject to serious cyber-attacks and exploitation activities – any of which could, without adequate implementation of cybersecurity controls, have adverse effects on mission operations, assets, individuals, our nation, and our allies. 

The main cyber challenge–U.S. Federal cyber defenders face an uphill battle, as the attack–surface they have to protect has grown significantly and is expected to balloon even further. Today, U.S. Federal customers are unable to defend every network and system against every kind of intrusion as the U.S. networks’ attack surface is too large to defend against all threats and too vast to close all vulnerabilities.

How is CSIOS helping its customers meet this cyber challenge?

At CSIOS, we are taking proactive steps to custom-tailor technical and non-technical solutions, processes, procedures, and best practices to help our customers identify, prioritize, and defend their most important networks and data so that they can carry out their missions effectively and learn to operate within a degraded and disrupted cyber environment in the event that an attack on their networks and data succeeds, or if aspects of the critical infrastructure on which they rely for its operational and contingency plans are disrupted. 

What is the key to the future of CSIOS?

Without question, CSIOS’ most important resource is its cyber workforce. As we look into the future, maintaining the quality of our cyber workforce is one of our highest priorities and challenges. The increased demand for our cybersecurity services and evolving operational commitments require us to build a world-class cyber workforce of the future; we are attracting the best talent, the best ideas, the best partners, and the best technologies to continue to develop ours and our customer’s cyber forces and strengthen their cyber defenses and cyber deterrence postures. 

Simultaneously, in our ongoing pursuit of global security in cyberspace, we have built strong bridges to the private and public sectors as well as the research institutions that make the United States such an innovative nation. We are also collaborating and cooperating within and across the federal government, with industry, with international allies and partners, and with state and local governments to better prepare our U.S. Federal customers to conduct combined cyberspace operations to deter and if necessary defeat aggression in cyberspace. Together, with our partners, we are crafting the strategies, plans, capabilities, and processes to better service and defend U.S. Federal networks, systems, and information; defend the U.S. and its interests against cyber attacks of significant consequence; and provide integrated cyber capabilities to support military operations and contingency plans.  

The Brain Behind The Operation

Cesar Pie: A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Mr Pie is an established corporate officer with a demonstrated record of success and unyielding commitment to teamwork, honesty, integrity, excellence, and dedication to employees and the U.S. Federal government customers he serves.

He holds a Master of Science degree in Computer System Management and Information Assurance from the

University of Maryland University College and a myriad of professional certifications to include Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Information Systems Security Engineering Professional (ISSEP), and Project Management Professional (PMP).

"Not only has CSIOS synchronized compliant–and–mission–ready cybersecurity services—it has raised the bar—unlocking a new service delivery level that is changing expectations and requirements of U.S. Government customers worldwide.”