As technology advances, so do the capabilities of hackers and the advancement of how they can get through security measures that are put in place. Because of this, it is more important than ever to tighten security—particularly supply chain security.
This is something that the Department of Defense has been voicing its concerns over for a while. The DoD’s new defense framework, CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification), is particularly important. This is intended to serve as a verification mechanism that maintains adequate and appropriate cybersecurity practices and processes within a company.
The main motivation of creating and implementing CMMC is to protect important federal information (FCI) and controlled unclassified information (CUI) within the department’s classified networks.
What is CMMC?
CMMC, as touched on above, is a defense framework that is being rolled out for Department of Defense contractors and suppliers which specifically emphasizes supply chain security to protect against attacks that spread through supply chains.
All Department of Defense contractors who work with CUI will need to pass a CMMC audit demonstrating that they meet the required level of standards when it comes to cybersecurity. Furthermore, it is not only the contractors, but also their suppliers and subcontractors who work under contracts that require CMMC who will also need to be compliant.
The CMMC standards are very rigorous to meet and as they are still quite new; many of the regulations are still in the trial phase, and it’s anticipated that it will take until 2025 to get CMMC fully implemented among all the necessary organizations.
What was the SolarWinds 2020 breach?
Back in 2020, SolarWinds, a popular network management company, experienced a devastating data breach where a malicious code was embedded into their software. This malware was then delivered to many of their customers, impacting thousands of organizations and businesses in their network.
This breach was just one, albeit major, example that cybersecurity is so important not just for the main company in question, but everyone that they have business with and that can be affected as a direct result. Such malicious attacks can have catastrophic effects.
The software breach that happened to SolarWinds also managed to impact US Federal Government Departments, which could have had a really devastating and widespread impact on potentially hundreds of thousands should confidential data have been released.
One of the main takeaways from the disaster was that businesses turned to look into their cybersecurity and ensure that it was taken much more seriously. When faced with the real threat that lax security can provide, it shows just how important it is to remain stringently protected.
The attacks proved that it is important to focus on security in order to reduce the risk not only to your own business but to all the third parties in your supply chain, too, as CMMC is working to do.