What is it? Your public safety agency is collecting reams of data from incident information, case reports, master name records, and media for each. Unlike other entities, however, your agency must also ensure it creates proper chain-of-custody records, protects sensitive evidence, and maintains thorough records about what it’s been doing and how it’s been doing it. If you’re looking to solve your agency’s evidence, document, and records management concerns, you should consider ARMS SaaS (software-as-a-service). For over 30 years, ARMS has provided law enforcement, security, and safety agencies with the software solutions they need to do their job with minimum fuss and maximum efficiency. Why the Cloud? Most agencies that maintain their CAD/RMS systems internally simply don’t have the funds or the expertise to keep up with all the evolutions that are changing the industry standards on a daily basis. Security threats, innovative programming, and devices, and emerging digital frontiers like the “internet of things” are flooding the global marketplace with digital opportunities, and the information overflow is just too great to manage on yesterday’s on-prem servers and machines. The cloud offers a reasonably priced alternative to on-prem solutions that not only can store your data, but also increase the security of the information your agency gathers. At ARMS, our SaaS option is designed to meet the unique needs of today’s safety and security enterprises:

• The service is unmatched at records management. ARMS utilizes Microsoft Azure’s cloud servers to store unlimited volumes of data, so security firms can access what they need when they need it. This unlimited storage capacity allows you to remain in compliance with regulations that require long-term storage of critical evidence. Your officers can go about their business knowing that the information they need to do their job is available at their fingertips whenever they need it, whether that’s in 5 days or 5 years.
• A disaster that destroys safety records and files compounds the losses suffered by both the investigators and victims of the crimes they are investigating. Backup and recovery programming is at risk when they are located at the same location as the primary servers. With ARMS SaaS and our partnership with Microsoft, we will safely store your critical backups and live data on several sites throughout the United States, ensuring you have access to your data when you need it.
• Maintaining your data and its security isn’t your primary function, but it is ours. Our data security professionals manage all aspects of the software, including backups, upgrades, threat scans, and support services. Your staff can focus on their work, not on data management.

Designed for safety and security operations Your security or law enforcement agency needs swift and accurate access to national and international databases and can’t afford to risk non-compliance with data security regulators in the process. At ARMS, we use Microsoft’s Azure Government cloud-based platform to protect all our government and law enforcement clients’ data and computing needs from inadvertent or intentional breaches. Azure Government is certified compliant with all three of the big data security regulators: the FBI’s CJIS and both of the U.S. government’s FIPS 140 and FedRAMP standards. Using the Azure Government services for your agency’s data management needs ensures that you are always in compliance with the data security regulations in your local, regional, or national arena. 

The Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) The criminal justice system requires the highest standard available for data security measures, and Microsoft’s Azure Government platform has been determined sufficiently secure to comply with the exacting CJIS standards established by the FBI. So far, 33 states have signed management agreements with Microsoft to use its Azure platform for all their government processes. Additionally, because the Government cloud operates through CJIS-certified data centers, both the personnel with access to the Azure cloud and their practices are also certified as CJIS compliant.

 The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) #140 A significant aspect of data security methodology is encryption, and the highest levels of encryption security meet the standards set out in FIPS publication 140. The standard sets out security requirements for 11 areas that represent the design and implementation of cryptographic modules. Each module sets a distinct cryptography policy, and cryptography practices measured against it are tested for their cryptographic algorithms, key management capabilities, and authentication techniques. Agencies that use modules designed for secret systems (as opposed to private systems) may need to meet the validation requirements of 140-2. Many governments require their agencies to use validated cryptography-based secured systems for all their sensitive information systems. As a response to that demand, Microsoft has ensured that every version of its Windows program has met the validation requirement since the U.S. government introduced the standard in 2001. In fact, all of Microsoft’s hosting products, including its Azure Government platform, use only FIPS 140 encrypted algorithms. 

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) In 2014, the federal government launched its FedRAMP to establish a common set of security controls that are acceptable government-wide. Cloud services that are granted a “provisional authority to operate” (P-ATO) have completed extensive security and compliance review and been found compliant with the security demands of both the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The Azure Government platform was the first public cloud offering to receive a P-ATO at the “moderate impact” level, which covers any data system in which the impact of data loss is deemed limited or serious but not catastrophic. Because it was also granted a P-ATO at the High Impact level, Azure Government users are authorized to process highly sensitive government data. In total, the Azure Government offers 32 infrastructure and platform services within its compliance boundary. At ARMS, we offer Azure Government hosting for all law enforcement and security agency needs and would be happy to help you assess the security realities of your data security practices.