Back in 2020, the Department of Defense, as it was called at the time, introduced the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). It carried the goal of ensuring companies would be able to protect sensitive information when working on government contracts.
The program requires contractors handling Federal Contract Information (FCI) and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) to meet specified cybersecurity standards. Prior to CMMC, DoD contractors were required to self-attest cybersecurity compliance with frameworks set up by the National Institute of Standards of Technology (NIST).
Fast forward to September 10 of last year and the Department of War as it’s now known, published an update to the CMMC – basically launching a three-year rollout of elevated cybersecurity requirements.
To help clarify some of the challenges and benefits associated with CMMC, I invited Mark Knight to the program. He's a Partner and Cybersecurity Risk Advisory Leader at Armanino. Watch/listen as he offers:
- Details on what the updated CMMC is all about.
- The challenges of meeting these new compliance standards.
- Embracing the good and bad of government ambiguity in complying with CMMC.
- The impact this certification could have on all manufacturers, regardless of whether or not you’re going after DOW contracts.
- The good and bad of utilizing AI for compliance work.
- How CMMC could spur M&A activity within the cybersecurity tool sector.
- The potential supply chain impacts of companies deciding against pursuing CMMC compliance.
To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast. And if you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at [email protected].
