Specifications include, but are not limited to: e. Managed Detection and Response Services. The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) is seeking proposals from highly experienced and professional firms to provide a comprehensive, managed detection and response security solution that should include but is not limited to, the following: a. Monitoring and logging of network traffic including North/South (ingress/egress) and East/West b. Live data visualization and analysis of all North/South & East/West traffic c. Network and system data ingestion including cloud-based systems d. Proactive threat hunting intelligence, investigation, reporting e. Artificial intelligence-based security analytics and threat intelligence f. Security event insight, prioritization, and analysis g. Firewall management including manual or automated changes as required to resolve incidents, remove, or reduce identified threats h. 24-hour X 7 day per week (24X7) incident monitoring, alerting (with playbook and response options) i. Incident response and remediation by third-party provider. j. Vulnerability management 1.1.Alternate 1. Managed Services for Systems. HCPSS will consider third-party management of selected devices, platforms, services, or applications to ensure ongoing security in operation and administration. HCPSS practices a defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity and has a significant investment in a variety of systems to protect HCPSS information and the network. Each system has one or more internal owners and administrators. HCPSS uses well-known Contractor products and would expect any system that may be a candidate for third-party management would be managed by an individual with related certifications, credentials, or experience. E.g. Managing a Palo Alto firewall would dictate a third-party administrator with a current Palo Alto PCNSA (Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Administrator) certification. If a listed system does not have a relevant certification for their product, then two or more years of proven experience will be considered. Candidate systems are noted in Table 1.
