Friday, April 18, 2025
Key Issues Overhauling the FAR Troops in South Korea Overland AI
The Pentagon is moving aggressively under its cybersecurity certification program to create a framework and structure for contractors, vendors, and suppliers to get up to speed on what they will need to do to get certified, according to a top Defense Department official, but the process of changing acquisition rules to make the program effective could be delayed.
Auditors under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification will be prohibited from consulting with companies they are certifying in an effort to create "checks and balances," according to DOD acquisition Chief Information Security Officer Katie Arrington.
The Defense Department is surging ahead with efforts to get third-party assessor organizations certified for work under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, but the process of setting up a structure for companies to be assessed and approved has many unanswered questions, according to two large defense industry groups.
The Senate Armed Services Committee's move to paper hearings has slowed efforts to fold Cyberspace Solarium Commission recommendations into the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill, as the Senate panel's leaders want to hear directly from members of the high-profile advisory panel in person, according to a committee staffer.
The Defense Department is setting an aggressive schedule to get up to 1,500 contractors certified under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program by the end of this year, but the timing could shift on expected deliverables amid the response to the COVID-19 health crisis, according to public statements and remarks by sources.