Lockheed Martin has become one of the first companies accredited by the National Security Agency to help organizations respond to cyber attacks.

The accreditation for the agency's Cyber Incident Response Assistance program, or CIRA, was given by the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate.

"Serving as one of the first participants for the NSA's newest incident response initiative and receiving accreditation validates our capabilities and further solidifies our role as an industry leader in the cyber-security business," said Chandra McMahon, vice president of commercial markets for Lockheed Martin's Information Systems & Global Solutions business.

"Our Intelligence Driven Defense approach to securing networks, coupled with our extensive experience protecting .mil, .gov, and .com domains, enabled us to meet the rigorous evaluation criteria set forth in this program."

Lockheed said CIRA focuses on the areas of network intrusion detection, incident response, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing to identify government-approved vendors for cyber-incident response help.

To be qualified as a CIRA service provider, the company had to demonstrate its services and capabilities in 21 critical areas to owners and operators of national security systems.