Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

The Department of Defense DFARS Cybersecurity Clause, more commonly known as the DoD Cyber Clause (or just DFARS 7012), is the long-standing set of rules the DoD has put in place for all members of the DoD supply chain and defense industrial base. It has also spread beyond those boundaries through the use of DFARS 7012 clauses in contracts for other parts of the federal government.

FedRAMP is the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, and it’s one of the most widely used governmental cybersecurity frameworks across the United States. It’s meant to serve as the gatekeeper for any contractor looking to work with the federal government to ensure that everyone across the board has a minimum level of cybersecurity in place to protect themselves, the government, and each other from risks and threats. FedRAMP is not alone.

The overall defense industrial base is growing increasingly aware of the needs of modern information and cyber security. From recent major supply chain attacks to the constant threat of nation-state actors trying to compromise systems, it’s important to be committed to the best security you can implement, no matter where you are in the supply chain. One of the tools provided to you, and required by the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, is the SPRS.

The world of cybersecurity is always changing, with rapid evolution in both threat and response creating a continual churn in knowledge, technology, and standards. Frameworks meant to help protect systems and businesses, especially the government, tend to be comparatively slow. It takes a lot of momentum and effort to get a new framework iteration through the various committees, analysis groups, and other roadblocks necessary to get it approved.

CMMC mandates that companies working as part of the government supply line need to comply with a level of security determined by their handling of controlled information. Identifying the level of compliance necessary for your business is the first step in achieving that compliance. The second step is scoping.

One of the most critical elements of modern information security is encryption. Encryption is a complex field based solely on the arms race between people seeking secure ways to encode and encrypt data at rest and in transit and those seeking to break that encryption. Encryption is extremely commonplace. Most websites you visit use SSL, the Secure Socket Layer, which uses encryption to secure data traveling between your device and the servers hosting the website.

Here at Ignyte, we talk a lot about various overarching information security frameworks, like FedRAMP, CMMC, and ISO 27001. Within these overall frameworks exist a range of smaller and narrower standards, including COMSEC. If you’ve seen COMSEC as a term, you may be passingly familiar with what it is, but if you need to know the details, it’s surprisingly muddy to identify with specificity. So, we decided to talk about it.

As much as some people dislike it, the world is interconnected, and to operate a business successfully, you will have to use the products or services produced by other businesses. Under normal circumstances, this is fine. However, when you’re a contractor looking to work with a department of the federal government, you have to adhere to higher standards.

If you’re part of the defense industrial base and you’re seeking CMMC certification, there’s a very good chance you’re aiming for Level 2. Level 1 is mostly meant for businesses with a focus on federal contract information but not CUI, while Level 3 is meant for businesses handling the most sensitive kinds of CUI; since most businesses fall somewhere in the middle, Level 2 is the most common.

As of the end of last year, DoD contractors have to start paying attention to CMMC, as the Final Rule for CMMC 2.0 is now in force. While the timelines for full CMMC 2.0 compliance have just started, the full compliance process will inevitably take time. There will be mistakes, gaps, and missed items along the way. The accepted way to handle these gaps is through the use of POA&Ms. What are POA&Ms, how do you use them, and what do you need to know for 2025 and beyond?