Understanding OMB M-21-31 and Its Role in Federal Cybersecurity

Federal agencies face constant pressure to fortify their cybersecurity defenses. A key driver of this effort is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-21-31, “Improving the Federal Government’s Investigative and Remediation Capabilities.” This directive sets a clear path for agencies to enhance their ability to detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats. Understanding and implementing M-21-31 is not just about compliance; it’s about building a more resilient and secure government infrastructure.

This post will explore what OMB M-21-31 entails, why it’s a critical component of modern federal cybersecurity, and how the Coralogix platform helps agencies meet these essential requirements. We will cover the importance of advanced event logging, its connection to Zero Trust, and the path to achieving cost-efficient compliance.

What is OMB M-21-31?

For many agencies, questions remain around what is OMB M-21-31, how to comply with it, and how it aligns with broader federal cybersecurity initiatives.Issued in August 2021, OMB M-21-31 responds to the growing sophistication of cyberattacks targeting government systems. The memorandum mandates that federal agencies improve their security posture by advancing their event logging, log retention, and log management capabilities. The core goal is to ensure that when a security incident occurs, agencies have the necessary data to understand what happened, contain the damage, and prevent future breaches.

M-21-31 establishes a new maturity model for event logging, requiring agencies to achieve progressively higher levels of visibility and data fidelity. This isn’t just about collecting more logs; it’s about collecting the right logs, ensuring their integrity, and making them readily available for analysis during incident response.

The Significance for Federal Agencies

The memorandum fundamentally changes how federal agencies must approach their data. It moves them away from reactive, compliance-focused logging to a proactive, security-driven strategy. The key implications include:

• Enhanced Visibility: Agencies need comprehensive insight into all activities across their networks, applications, and systems. This requires a centralized approach to log collection and management.
• Faster Incident Response: With standardized and accessible logs, security teams can drastically reduce the time it takes to detect and respond to threats, minimizing potential impact.
• Foundation for Zero Trust: M-21-31 is a critical building block for implementing a Zero Trust architecture. Zero Trust operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify,” which is impossible without continuous, detailed logging to validate every access request and transaction.

The Pillars of M-21-31 Compliance

The memorandum outlines specific OMB M-21-31 compliance requirements that agencies must meet through a structured maturity model.. These are categorized into a maturity model with four tiers (Tier 0 to Tier 3), guiding agencies from basic logging practices to advanced, centrally managed log analysis.

Advanced Event Logging

M-21-31 specifies particular event types that must be logged and made available. This includes data from DNS, HTTP/S traffic, network device activity, and operating system events. The focus is on capturing rich contextual information that can help investigators piece together the full story of an attack. Agencies must ensure logs are complete, consistent, and protected from tampering.

Centralized Access and Management

A core requirement is the ability to centralize logs from various sources into a single repository. This consolidation simplifies analysis and ensures that incident responders have a unified view of events across the enterprise. The memorandum also sets requirements for log retention, requiring agencies to store certain logs for extended periods to support forensic analysis and long-term threat hunting.

Alignment with Zero Trust Architecture

M-21-31 directly supports the government-wide shift to Zero Trust, as mandated by Executive Order 14028. A Zero Trust security model assumes that threats can exist both inside and outside the network. It relies on continuous verification of users, devices, and applications. Robust event logging provides the essential telemetry needed to make these verification decisions in real time and to audit activity for anomalous behavior.

How Coralogix Enables M-21-31 Compliance

Meeting the rigorous demands of M-21-31 requires a modern, powerful observability platform. Coralogix is specifically designed to help government agencies achieve compliance efficiently and cost-effectively. The platform supports federal observability and security telemetry management at scale without the cost overhead of traditional log indexing.

Secure and Scalable Telemetry Management

The Coralogix platform provides a comprehensive solution for managing logs, metrics, traces, and security events. It is built to handle the immense data volumes generated by federal IT environments without compromising performance. With a unique architecture that enables in-stream analytics without relying on indexing or hot storage, Coralogix dramatically reduces the total cost of ownership—by up to 70% in many cases. This allows agencies to meet M-21-31’s data retention and analysis requirements within budget.

Built for the Federal Mission

Coralogix empowers government agencies with a platform designed to meet stringent security and compliance mandates. Our commitment to the federal mission is demonstrated by our robust certifications and operational standards:

• FedRAMP® Moderate In Process
• AWS GovCloud
• ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR

These qualifications ensure that agency data is handled with the highest level of security, supporting missions at the federal, state, and local levels.

Accelerating the Journey to Zero Trust

Coralogix helps agencies accelerate their transition to Zero Trust architectures. By providing the deep observability needed for continuous verification, our platform aligns directly with the principles of NIST SP 800-207. Agencies can use Coralogix to collect comprehensive log data, analyze it in real time for signs of compromise, and measure their maturity against evolving federal cybersecurity standards.

Powerful Partnerships

We partner with leading Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) like AWS, Google Cloud, and IBM to deliver end-to-end observability to government clients. Our extensive partner network also includes Managed Service Providers and System Integrators who are experts in navigating the federal landscape. This ecosystem ensures that agencies have the support and technology needed to implement a successful M-21-31 compliance strategy.

Charting Your Path to Compliance

OMB M-21-31 is more than a mandate; it is a framework for building a stronger, more resilient government. By prioritizing advanced event logging and laying the groundwork for Zero Trust, agencies can significantly improve their ability to defend against sophisticated cyber threats.

The journey to full compliance requires a strategic approach and the right technology partner. Coralogix offers a secure, scalable, and cost-efficient platform that empowers agencies to not only meet the requirements of M-21-31 but also to enhance their overall security posture for the future. By embracing modern observability, federal agencies can turn a compliance challenge into a strategic security advantage.