Why Government Contractors Need to Work With a CMMC Compliance Advisor

by Kristen White Blogger

The Department of Defense (DoD) is not immune to cybersecurity threats and breaches because it does business with hundreds of contractors and sub-contractors. Historically, the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) has complied with NIST Special Publication 800-171 to protect controlled unclassified information (CUI). However, many contractors have not met all those requirements, which has resulted in cybersecurity issues. This is why they and the companies they do business with need to work with a CMMC Compliance Advisor.

The Current Situation

Per USASPENDING.gov, current spending on contractual services and supplies was around $765.7 billion in June 2020, and with the world’s economy rebounding from the Coronavirus pandemic, this amount is likely to increase.

Government contracts often make it necessary to give contractors and sub-contractors access to sensitive and classified information. According to a CMMC compliance advisor, departments that are particularly affected by this are health services, the Treasury, the DoD, and NASA.

Therefore the government wants to ensure that business tools and processes are secure and protected from malicious hackers. To meet these requirements, a firm must work on its practical IT security framework and must qualify for the CMMC certification.

Some standard measures went into effect in July 2020. As a result, a company cannot do business with a government agency unless it can show it is in compliance. This includes delivering most data security compliance management services.

The federal government is currently set up to work with many privately-owned companies, and it believes that more than 7,500 organizations will be properly certified by the end of 2021. Many of them will attain CMMC compliance with the help of an advisor.

CMMC Compliance Requirements

CMMC was fully implemented at the end of 2020. From April to May 2020, firms were required to undergo training from third-party assessment organizations. In June 2020, CMMC was featured in RFIs (requests for information), and from August through September 2020, CMMC certification was included in requests for proposal (RFPs). Businesses were told to obtain certification by the fall of 2020, which enabled firms to renew bids or initiate bids for government contracts.

Compliance Management Programs

The Data Security Compliance Management program specifies minimum security requirements. The main goal is to protect the data that is handled by any firm that processes, stores, or transmits data because security compliance management helps firms properly handle the security, integrity, and availability of sensitive data and information systems.