US Department of Defence (DOD) contractors and the entire government contracting supply chain are facing more sophisticated cybersecurity challenges, made increasingly more complicated with the continued threat of third-party breaches of controlled unclassified information (CUI). In response to the increased need for security measures, the DOD recently released the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) to enhance the information security expectations that its prime contractors and subcontractors in the defence industrial base (DIB) must maintain in order to protect CUI.
To help improve the protection of CUI, as well as the effectiveness of the supply chain’s cybersecurity posture, the DOD released CMMC 2.0 on November 4th, 2021. The CMMC framework defines a new, tiered approach of certifying the cybersecurity posture of all organizations that provide goods and services to the DOD, regardless of the amount of confidential data (e.g., CUI) they handle. Approximately 350,000 contractors and subcontractors within the DIB will be required to be CMMC certified to continue working on or seeking out new DOD contracts.
