Defense Cybersecurity: Strengthening Compliance through Integrated CMMC Practices

Defense industrial base cybersecurity requires more than traditional security controls. Disciplined practices, appropriate safeguards and documented processes are required to demonstrate protection of sensitive information for any organization that maintains federal contract information or controlled unclassified information. Compliance extends beyond the technology team and is an element of how an organization handles information, people and operational risk. The security controls required for CMMC exist in a fragmented manner, and being ready for assessment and having security governance is a disjointed process. The security controls needed for CMMC are scattered about, and being ready for assessment and having a security governance is an uncoordinated process.

Market Shifts Reshaping CMMC Compliance Management

Businesses must assess the flow of sensitive information within their systems and their relationships with external entities. As a result, CMMC compliance is becoming increasingly integrated with enterprise cybersecurity strategy. The scope of compliance covers endpoints, networks, cloud resources, identity controls and administrative processes. The security team must have visibility of the location of information they control, who can access it, and how that access is controlled over the entire life cycle of the information. A robust compliance program starts with proper asset and data visibility. If there is no clear link to the actual business, security controls can become detached from the business. As assets are discovered, access is managed, and data is classified, more and more technology leaders are incorporating these activities into their wider security governance framework, making compliance more manageable when infrastructure changes.

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The move towards the cloud is shaping the approach to compliance, too. The shift towards the cloud is also driving organizations' approach to compliance. Security and configuration requirements may vary depending on the type of workloads being operated by defense-related projects, such as whether it is being hosted on private infrastructure, approved cloud, or a combination of the two. Permission, logging and configuration policies that are carefully managed can enable stronger centralized management of cloud platforms.

Another significant line of focus is on identity and access management. There will be cases that need to be accessed for a valid business purpose, and there will be cases that require a higher level of protection due to the amount of access given by a privileged account. Role-based permissions, multi-factor authentication and periodic access audits can help foster a more disciplined identity management strategy. Well-managed access offers a greater operational benefit beyond adherence to the regulations since it mitigates unnecessary exposure and allows for greater clarity on who can access sensitive resources.

Turning Compliance Challenges into Stronger Security Practices

A major hurdle in the preparation for CMMC is the ability to convert the formal requirements into practical processes that can be consistently followed by employees and technical teams. Policies might be in place, but operational practices can vary from department to department. A better way is to link all needs to an accountable person, provide a clear procedure and evidence that the procedure is being followed. Control matrices and documented workflows can be used to link policy and day-to-day activities for security teams.

“By linking security data with compliance practices, technology leaders will be able to see whether compliance is being met and where there might be a need for remediation.”

Effective evidence management goes beyond having security controls. It also requires being prepared for assessment. Organizations need to be able to show the way the controls work and the way responsibilities are kept. When records are stored across ticketing systems, security platforms, policy repositories, and individual team files, it can be challenging to manage evidence. This problem can be solved with a centralized evidence process by establishing the documentation needed, where it will be kept, and how often it will be checked.

The expansion and evolution of systems can lead to challenges in managing configurations. Changes to existing security controls may be made as a result of new device, application and infrastructure deployments. It is possible to handle the challenge using standard configuration baselines, change management procedures and continual monitoring. Automated checks can detect any configuration deviations from approved configurations and help security staff investigate and correct issues before they grow into bigger compliance problems.

Advancing Compliance through Integrated Security Capabilities

Technology is bringing more ongoing, connected compliance management capabilities into the fold of wider security operations. Continuous visibility into technical conditions can be achieved using SIEM platforms, endpoint monitoring solutions, and endpoint vulnerability management solutions. By linking security data with compliance practices, technology leaders will be able to see whether compliance is being met and where there might be a need for remediation.

Selected compliance-related activities may be aided by artificial intelligence, such as the ability to process big data, detect trends or document compliance. Automated analysis may help with the review of evidence or identify areas for further inquiry. As compliance decisions are likely to be influenced by the context of the organization, contractual obligations, and the security control interpretation, human oversight is still necessary.

One additional benefit of continuous monitoring is that it is more viable for compliance. Periodic assessment preparation can often be a big part of traditional compliance activities, whereas environments in operations can change much faster. Between formal reviews, access changes, endpoint conditions, vulnerabilities and configuration status can be monitored and provided with visibility. Once the changes are made, compliance teams can react instead of recreating the surroundings after huge changes are made.