Achieving Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) leaves many defense contractors feeling trapped between a rock and a hard place. Without getting certified, they can’t serve their most important customer, the Department of Defense (DoD). But in the process of getting certified, operations may be delayed or disrupted in ways that compromise revenue and client relationships.
Fortunately, getting CMMC compliant doesn’t have to negatively affect business operations. We’ve helped defense contractors of all sizes get compliant while maintaining business as usual. Here’s a proven process to keep everything on track.
- Understand Your Scope: Your scope determines both what you need to secure to get compliant, and how much time and resources your CMMC journey will take. That’s why it’s first on this list and important to understand accurately. Identify all the federal contract information (FCI) and controlled unclassified information (CUI) you possess, followed by all the systems and silos that interact with that information. Next, decide whether it’s easier to secure everything on the list or, alternatively, change how you handle sensitive information to limit the size and complexity of the scope. If you take the second track, consider how any changes may affect existing workflows and what contingencies are required to avoid disruptions later.
- Set Your Priorities: CMMC compliance most often causes disruptions when companies try to work on dozens of cybersecurity controls simultaneously. A more stabilizing approach focuses on the high-risk controls first, a list that often includes access controls, identification and authentication requirements, and systems protections. These will take the longest, require the most resources, and get the greatest scrutiny from assessors, so it makes sense to begin ASAP. Similarly, focus on what assessors look at first: things like the system security plan, asset inventory, and network diagrams, which all need to be right for the assessment to continue. Finally, differentiate between “nice-to-have” and “must-have” to keep the priorities list as short and streamlined as possible.
- Align Teams Early: Perhaps the easiest way to keep CMMC obligations aligned with business operations is to coordinate the various stakeholders early on. Pick representatives from each business function – IT, operations, leadership, accounting, etc. – to meet regularly and discuss their progress, challenges, and needs. Open communication can prevent many friction points before they have consequences. Cooperation can also keep timelines and milestones realistic. We often see companies give sole or primary responsibility for CMMC to IT, when really it should be an organization-wide initiative.
- Build Evidence Continuously: Every part of CMMC compliance requires thorough documentation. Waiting to create this documentation becomes a significant distraction and time drain while increasing the risk or errors and omissions. Making documentation a part of daily work, however, keeps the process manageable and accurate. Some of this documentation may already exist in the form of asset inventories or IT policies. Others, like system settings, may be easily extracted from live systems. Strive to make documentation continuous and efficient, because the alternative is to scramble before an assessment, which makes disruptions almost inevitable and mistakes more likely.
- Practice Before the Assessment: Failing an assessment only makes compliance take longer and cost more, so it’s imperative to pass the first time. Rather than rushing to schedule an assessment as quickly as possible, take some time to practice, prepare, and ensure everything is correct. Conduct internal readiness checks to identify potential problem areas. Look for gaps and weaknesses with the same intensity an assessor would apply. Get an objective opinion by enlisting a third-party to perform a simulated assessment. With deadlines currently paused, it’s understandable to want to wait, but completing an assessment as early as possible will put you ahead of the competition once a new deadline has been announced.
Building Confidence in CMMC Compliance
CMMC is a journey, first to get compliant, then to stay compliant, and, most importantly, to avoid any cyber incidents that could jeopardize relationships with the DoD. Which is to say, you need to integrate compliance, and by extension cybersecurity, into every facet of operations from here forward. Preparation is the beginning, but the assessment isn’t the ending.
Guide Technologies has learned a lot about preparing for CMMC assessments after repeatedly working through the process. But our team has just as much expertise in industrial cybersecurity and manufacturing technology, giving us unique insight into how CMMC is one part of an overall strategy for compliance, growth, and digital success.
Feel confident about the road ahead. Speak to a CMMC expert at Guide Technologies.
