If you’re a DoD contractor, it’s likely you’re aware of the cybersecurity maturity model certification, but maybe wondering how to achieve compliance. If your company wants to compete for contracts, you’ll need to maintain security and meet all the requirements in order to be CMMC compliant.
The CMMC is a unified approach to cybersecurity in the defense industry. Its goal is to define clear technical requirements for contractors, subcontractors, or other organizations within the DoD that handle confidential unclassified information (CUI) or federal contract information (FCI).
Since the CMMC draws from three different existing technology standards, it’s likely you’re aware of requirements that already exist for compliance. Let’s go over some steps your business can take to ensure you’re CMMC compliant.
Identify What Certification Level Your Company Needs
There are five levels of certification for the CMMC to determine the maturity of an organization’s cybersecurity infrastructure, and therefore its ability to safeguard CUI and FCI. It’ important to note that each organization will require its own level of certification, but the DoD will specify when qualifying for a contract.
Each level is tiered, so businesses must achieve compliance with the preceding level before advancing:
- Level 1: Basic Cyber Hygiene
- Level 2: Intermediate Cyber Hygiene
- Level 3: Good Cyber Hygiene
- Level 4: Proactive Cybersecurity Practices
- Level 5: Optimized Capabilities
Assess Your Existing Security Environment
Once you identify the level of compliance your company must achieve, you’ll want to conduct a risk assessment on your existing infrastructure. During the assessment, you should aim to determine the following factors:
- Define what CUI or FCI you hold, where it’s stored or processed, and how it’s transmitted.
- Identify applicable NIST-800-171 controls.
- Bring existing policies into alignment with cybersecurity compliance requirements.
- Document your current CUI environment security strategy.
Prepare for Your Assessment
Federal contractors have always been required to maintain strict cybersecurity standards when handling CUI and FCI. However, third-party accreditation with a certified assessor will be required with CMMC.
Any cybersecurity expert with experience working with businesses within the DoD can help you prepare for auditing and certification. Here at Kyber Security, we can develop a remediation plan to better prepare you for your assessment. This plan will provide detailed documentation of your organization’s processes in relation to today’s cybersecurity standards, which makes it easier for DoD contractors to make the necessary changes to their systems in order to pass assessments and establish the appropriate CMMC level for their organization.
Stay Up to Date with Latest CMMC Developments
Cybersecurity isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it task, as the technology landscape is ever-changing. CMMC itself is a true representation of that, as it was only rolled out last year. Since its initial publication, CMMC has already gone through multiple drafts and updates.
In order to maintain CMMC compliance, it’s important to implement a process to stay up to date with the latest developments. If your company can get in the habit of staying current with the changes now, you may have the opportunity to get ahead on new contracts.
Prepare for the CMMC with Kyber Security
Any business operating within the DoD will need to be CMMC compliant to win contracts, and Kyber Security can help you do just that. Allow us to evaluate your related processes, controls, and policies to identify any potential gaps in your infrastructure. We can do the heavy lifting so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel creating new policies and corrective actions to keep your DoD contracts.
Looking for a quick guide on cybersecurity audits for DoD contractors? Click here to download our guide.