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New DoD Cybersecurity Regulations Are Coming—Is Your Company Ready?

Government Contracts Navigator

In January, the Department of Defense (“DoD”) released more information on its much-anticipated Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (“CMMC”) framework. While a final rule is not expected until the fall, contractors need to begin preparing now so they do not miss out on DoD contract opportunities.

What Is the CMMC?

The CMMC is a certification system that all DoD prime and subcontractors must comply with to be eligible to compete for and perform future DoD contracts. Under the new CMMC requirements, an accreditation body tapped by DoD will begin training third-party assessors in the spring of 2020, who will in turn certify defense contractors under the CMMC. There will be five CMMC certification levels, of ascending sophistication:

  • Level 1 – Basic Cyber Hygiene
  • Level 2 – Intermediate Cyber Hygiene
  • Level 3 – Good Cyber Hygiene
  • Level 4 – Proactive
  • Level 5 – Advanced / Progressive

The contractor must comply with a combination of the following cybersecurity safeguards, depending on the certification level a contractor wants to achieve: (1) FAR 52.204 (Basic Safeguarding of Covered Contractor Information Systems); (2) NIST Special Publication 800-171 Revision 1 (“NIST Requirements”); (3) select subsets of a supplement to the NIST Requirements called NIST SP 800-171B; and (4) up to 171 “practices” identified in the CMMC. Though this may sound like a lot for contractors to process, DoD has released helpful appendices that put many of the requirements in easy-to-understand terms.

To read the full post, please visit our Government Contracts Navigator blog.