Archer Community

SusanReadMiller · ‎2022-08-31

Summary

Archer announces the availability of Archer Release 6.12. This update contains enhancements and fixes for Archer use cases and the Archer Platform.

Platforms

Archer Platform running on all supported Operating System (OS) platforms.

Details

Archer Release 6.12 is generally available and delivers enhancements and fixes for Archer use cases and the Archer Platform.

Archer Release 6.12 is immediately available in all languages supported by Archer, including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and simplified Chinese.

Release 6.12 delivers updates to the following use cases:

Operational Resilience updates include Enterprise and Operational Risk Management capabilities:
- The Archer Operational Scenario Analysis use case includes new capabilities:
  - The Operational Resilience assessment determines the resilience of business units across the five resilience pillars (Cyber, IT, Facilities, People, Suppliers)
  - The Resilience Scorecard application aggregates results from Metrics, Third Party Metrics, Operational Scenario Analysis, Operational Resilience Assessment, and Third Party Resilience Assessment. Based on those results, a resilience rating is calculated for each business unit, division, and company across the five resilience pillars.
  - The Service Interruptions application dynamically compares the duration of realized incidents to predefined impact tolerances. Incidents exceeding their corresponding impact tolerances automatically trigger a lessons-learned exercise and generate findings.
- The Archer Key Indicator Management use case includes the following updates:
  - The Metrics application has been enhanced to include both numeric and qualitative thresholds using red, amber, green ratings.
  - The Metrics application has been integrated with the Archer Operational Scenario Analysis use case and preconfigured with Archer Engage.
  - Metrics Results are now automatically created when Metrics approach their next collection date.
- The Archer Third Party Governance use case includes several new enhancements:
  - Location-Based Risk Assessment assesses the impact of geographic-specific risk events on third parties, including natural disasters, geopolitical events, or the spread of a pandemic. The assessment has been preconfigured to operate with Archer Engage for Vendors.
  - Zero-Day Vulnerability Assessment determines if vendors have been impacted by vulnerabilities, and if so, to what degree. The assessment has been configured to operate with Archer Engage for Vendors.
  - Third Party Campaign application bulk creates Zero-Day Vulnerability and Location Based Risk assessments, allowing users to document high-level information about software vulnerabilities or geographical risk events and choose which third parties will be targets of the assessment.
Public Sector Solutions use cases incorporate changes required for the NIST (SP) 800-37 Rev 2 Risk Management Framework.

The Archer Assessment & Authorization use case includes new capabilities:
- The Assessment & Authorization application has been updated to include the “Prepare” step. This step enables the documentation of essential activities at the beginning of the risk management process.
- The Sub-System application has been updated to enable “Control Implementation and Assessment” within sub-systems for controls implemented by system. This will reduce time and effort required to complete the control evaluation process.
- The Cloud Services application has been added to document Cloud Services and Cloud Service Providers.
- The Digital Identity application has been added to incorporate changes to the NIST (SP) 800-63 Digital Identity Guidelines.
- The Control Implementation application has been added to document control implementation for individual control parts. This will provide more granularity and accountability for control implementation.
- NIST 800-53 Rev 5 Controls and NIST 800-53A Rev 5 Assessment Objectives are now available within the Control Catalog and Assessment Objectives Library.
- Metrics and Sankey charts enhance reporting for control monitoring.
The Archer Plan of Actions & Milestones (POA&M) Management use case includes the following updates:
- The Findings application has been updated to provide the ability to document and triage observations before creating POAMs.
- The Findings Folder application has been added to group findings.
The Archer Continuous Monitoring use case supports the Archer Assessment & Authorization use case shared applications.

Archer Third Party Risk Management has been updated to use the new Engage for Vendors UI configuration for the Engagement Risk Assessment and Third Party Resilience Assessment questionnaires. This removes the need to update field IDs within the Engage Button custom object.
Archer Top-Down Risk Assessment has been updated to include the appropriate data feed mappings to operate with the enhanced Metrics application.
Archer IT Controls Assurance and Archer Controls Assurance Program are updated with inclusive language.
Documentation, use cases and Platform terms and labels have been updated with language.
The Archer Enterprise Catalog package has been updated to remove cross-references specific to Operational Resilience from the layout of the business unit, division, and company applications. Those modules are now connected directly to the new Resilience Scorecard application.

Archer is in the process of updating our licensing services. If your organization plans to implement the updated Operational Resilience and/or Public Sector use cases, activate your license key using the new offline method, the Archer Activator available at https://www.archerirm.cloud/s/activation.

Release 6.12 includes the following Archer Platform enhancements:

Reporting
- Non-administrator users can share Personal Reports with other users. Administrators can view shared reports and promote them to global reports.
- New Network Graph non-statistical report option visualizes hierarchy to assist in understanding the state of the hierarchical node data represented.
- Archer Configuration Reports (ACRs) for SaaS deliver critical configuration information to Archer SaaS Admins from their Archer user interface. This eliminates service requests and reduces troubleshooting from 24 hours to just a few minutes.

Application Builder
- Administrators can View All Dependencies associated with a field and manage the field tasks such as encryption, deletion, and more.
- Administration listing page filter selections are retained when the user navigates away from the page.
- Help Text may be added ‘Above’ the data field in both edit and view mode.
- A new user experience is available for administration of inherited record permissions, allowing easy viewing of fields in which the permissions are being inherited.
- Apply Conditional Layout is viewed in a layout rather than a grid view.
Notifications - Reminder Subscription Notifications sent using the One Email option apply permissions per record.
Administration
- Token-based authentication (e.g., OAuth) is supported for the Mail Monitor Transporter type in Data Feeds, sending emails from Archer (SMTP), and Advanced Workflow Actions by Email capability (for on-premises environments).
Archer Help links from within the Archer Platform are routed directly to the corresponding help topic in the online Archer Help Center. This removal of all Help topics from the product results in a smaller installation file and enables Help topics to be updated on an as-needed basis.

Please note the following updates:

Microsoft announced the retirement of Basic Authentication and has requested that all Office365 Exchange customers migrate to an alternative authentication technology. In Archer Release 6.12, token-based authentication is supported along with the existing password-based authentication. See the Administration update above for additional details.
UPDATED: Silverlight Pages and Code Removed with Archer Release 6.12 Patch 2 (access requires Archer Community login)
Data Feed Manager JavaScript Transporter Scripts Require Update (access requires Archer Community login)

Recommendations

Archer recommends that customers running Archer Release 6.3 and later apply this latest update. Please note that all releases are cumulative.

If you are running Archer Release 6.2 or earlier, you must first upgrade to Archer Release 6.8 and then upgrade to Archer Release 6.12 or later.

Documentation

Release Notes for Archer Release 6.12 and additional release documentation are available on the Release 6.12 page on the Archer Community.

End of Product Support Policy

Archer has a defined End of Primary Support policy associated with all major versions. For additional details, refer to the Product Version Life Cycle.