Wednesday, September 27, 2023
The Pentagon's acquisition office has given its approval for the first contract solicitations with cyber certification requirements, and the rollout of the requests for proposals is expected in the summer, according to a Defense Department spokeswoman.
Defense Department acquisition Chief Information Security Officer Katie Arrington says her office is working to establish reciprocity with other government standards such as the General Services Administration's FedRAMP, in an effort to help companies reach compliance with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program more quickly while still maintaining necessary security requirements.
The Defense Department is expected to release contract solicitations with new cyber certification requirements in the coming weeks, but assessment companies are concerned about the impact of limited quality assurance guidance from the Pentagon and its independent accreditation body before the contractor auditing process officially starts.
The Defense Department has issued two new resources for contracting officials regarding the identification of controlled unclassified information and how it should be identified on government documents.
The accreditation body behind the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program is creating an Industry Advisory Council composed of private-sector leaders from organizations that will be seeking to get certified to compete for DOD contracts.
The Defense Information Systems Agency is looking to determine if an upcoming broadband contract should contain Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification requirements and whether industry has capacity to achieve compliance with the Pentagon cyber program.
The Pentagon is moving full speed ahead with its plans for the first year of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, despite potential obstacles in finding the right first pilot contracts and meeting demand for assessors.
Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Deputy Director Matthew Travis will lead the independent accreditation authority behind the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, according to an announcement from the entity's board of directors.
The Defense Department expects to release its first contract solicitations containing Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification requirements in the April-May timeframe, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. The solicitations will focus on requests for proposals in development from the Army and the Air Force.
Results from agency-led reports on semiconductor and high-capacity battery supply chains will help the Biden administration identify immediate priorities around reshoring manufacturing capacity and a risk management approach in collaboration with the private sector, according to a senior intelligence official.
CMMC Accreditation Body chair Karlton Johnson says his organization is prepared to meet the demand for assessments from contractors once the first certified, third-party assessment organizations are approved by the Defense Contract Management Agency.
Tabletop exercises conducted by the National Defense Industrial Association in coordination with Pentagon cyber certification leaders found areas of improvement are needed to clarify CMMC requirements for industry around operational technology and the marking of controlled unclassified information.
The Defense Department chief information officer is exploring if changes need to be made to the Pentagon's acquisition rules to take into consideration recent National Institute of Standards and Technology guidance for advanced persistent threats and the protection of high-level assets.
The Defense Department is working on a new rule to establish a cyber regime focused on advanced persistent threats that is expected to add new regulations around levels four and five of the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program.
Meeting the standards laid out in the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program is a necessary start to buying down supply chain risk through establishing good cyber hygiene, but cyber experts say CMMC would not necessarily have helped contractors detect or prevent exposure to the SolarWinds attack.
The Defense Department is working with the General Services Administration's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program team to develop a "gap analysis" that will compare the cloud services effort with the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification initiative, according to DOD's Stacy Bostjanick.
The Defense Department is expecting to release its first request for proposals containing requirements from its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program in March, according to Pentagon acquisition Chief Information Security Officer Katie Arrington.
The rollout of the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program is one of several lines of effort at the Defense Department's acquisition office that addresses supply chain risk management, according to Pentagon acquisition leaders who described the multifaceted approach in an exclusive interview.
The Defense Department's acquisition office and its partners are in the process of adjudicating comments on an interim rule implementing their Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, which Pentagon leaders say will have an impact on the CMMC maturity model and assessment guides.
The Defense Department has no plans to slow down the rollout of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, according to a senior acquisition official, who says there is "bipartisan" support to get the new structure stood up at the Pentagon.