What is the United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB)?

• A. A Federal Government-wide initiative providing guidance on security configuration baselines
• B. A private sector standard for configuration management
• C. A cryptographic algorithm standard
• D. A vulnerability scanning protocol

Answer: (A)

The United States Government Configuration Baseline is a federal government–wide initiative that provides standardized guidance on how to securely configure operating systems and common applications. The goal is to establish trusted baseline settings across government systems, reducing the attack surface and making it easier to manage, audit, and enforce consistent security practices across agencies. These baselines are updated to reflect new threats and software versions and are used to guide configuration management and compliance efforts under FISMA and related guidelines.

This isn’t a private-sector standard, it isn’t a cryptographic algorithm standard, and it isn’t a vulnerability scanning protocol.