What to Expect for Your CMMC 2.0 Level 2 Audit
If you’re trying to navigate the complexities of your CMMC 2.0 audit and certification processes, this webinar is for you. Discover how to effectively find and vet a C3PAO and learn what is required from you for a successful audit. Among other recommendations, expert guests demystify POA&Ms, providing strategies for resolution, and offer experienced recommendations and best practices for completing your CMMC 2.0 audit successfully.
Sensitive Content Communications and CMMC 2.0 Compliance
As a defense industrial base (DIB) contractor, ensuring the security and proper handling of sensitive information is crucial for maintaining compliance with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0 framework. Following are some of the biggest challenges faced by DIB contractors when it comes to CMMC 2.0 compliance and their sensitive content communications.
Secure Email Communications
One of the primary challenges in sensitive content communication is ensuring the security of email exchanges. Email is a common method of communication, but it is also vulnerable to interception and unauthorized access. To mitigate this risk, DIB contractors must implement secure email protocols, such as encryption and digital signatures, to protect and verify the integrity of sensitive information transmitted via email. Additionally, contractors should consider using email solutions that have achieved FedRAMP Moderate authorization, which ensures that the service provider has met stringent security requirements set by the U.S. government.
CUI Identification and Labeling
Accurately identifying and labelling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is another significant challenge for DIB contractors. CUI encompasses a wide range of sensitive information that requires safeguarding or dissemination controls pursuant to and consistent with applicable laws, regulations, and government-wide policies. Contractors must develop and implement processes to correctly identify and label CUI across various formats, including digital and physical documents, emails, and digital assets. Proper identification and labelling ensure that sensitive information receives the appropriate level of protection and is only shared with authorised individuals.
Access Control and Permission Management
Managing access control and permissions for sensitive content is a complex task that requires ongoing vigilance. DIB contractors must establish strict access control policies and procedures to ensure that only authorised personnel can access sensitive information. This involves implementing role-based access control (RBAC) systems, regularly reviewing and updating user permissions, and promptly revoking access when an employee’s role changes, or they leave the organisation. Contractors must also maintain detailed audit logs to track access to sensitive content and detect any unauthorised access attempts.
Secure File Sharing and Collaboration
Collaborating on sensitive content presents unique challenges, as it often involves sharing files and documents with external partners, subcontractors, and government agencies. DIB contractors must adopt secure file-sharing solutions that provide end-to-end encryption, access controls, and auditing capabilities. These solutions should also comply with CMMC 2.0 requirements for protecting CUI and other sensitive information. When selecting a file-sharing platform, contractors should prioritise solutions that have achieved FedRAMP Moderate authorization, as this ensures a high level of security and compliance with government standards.
Secure Managed File Transfer
DIB contractors must consider the use of secure managed file transfer solutions for transmitting large or sensitive files. Managed file transfer solutions provide a secure, reliable, and auditable method for transferring files between organisations, ensuring that sensitive data is protected in transit. When selecting a secure managed file transfer solution, contractors should look for features such as encryption, access controls, and detailed audit logs. Further, managed file transfer solutions should be FedRAMP Moderate authorised to ensure compliance with government security requirements.
Demonstrating Compliance Quickly and Easily
Demonstrating compliance with CMMC 2.0 requirements can be a significant challenge for DIB contractors, particularly when it comes to sensitive content communications. Most communication tools, such as email, SFTP, and file-sharing platforms, reside in silos and generate separate sets of audit logs. Aggregating and reconciling these logs to demonstrate compliance can be a time-consuming and virtually impossible task.
Using Kiteworks to Accelerate Your CMMC 2.0 Compliance Journey
Control, Protect, and Track Your Sensitive DoD Communications for CMMC Compliance
Safeguard FCI and CUI whenever you send it, share it, receive it, or store it. Granular access controls, multi-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, and secure links ensure only authorized users have access to sensitive content, essential for CMMC compliance. Consolidate secure email, file sharing, managed file transfer, web forms, and APIs into one platform to unify metadata and standardize security policies and controls. Finally, a single point of integration for security investments like ATP, DLP, CDR, LDAP/AD, and SIEM let defense contractors and subcontractors protect sensitive content under CMMC 2.0 practices.
Learn more about Kiteworks security capabilities for protecting FCI and CUI
Ease Deployment With FedRAMP Moderate Authorization
Avoid the time and cost of proving your cloud platform meets 325 NIST 800-53 security controls—critical for CMMC compliance—by adopting one the U.S. federal government has already approved: FedRAMP Moderate Authorized. Unlike “FedRAMP equivalent” vendors, Kiteworks undergoes regular pen tests and employee screening, and is backed by strong encryption, physical security, incident response plans, and more. Ultimately, contractors that use a FedRAMP authorized file sharing solution like Kiteworks have a shorter road to meeting CMMC requirements and demonstrating CMMC compliance.
Safeguard DoD CUI With Comprehensive Access Controls for CMMC Compliance
Centrally administer a single set of user roles and policies to protect the CUI that flows through all the communication channels the Kiteworks platform consolidates. Mitigate the risk of inadvertent or malicious CUI exposure with default least-privilege access controls over folders, emails, SFTP, managed file transfer (MFT) flows, and web forms, as well as clients, functions, repositories, and domains. And no matter what deployment option you choose, Kiteworks employees never have access to content in your Kiteworks system.
Protect CUI With Seamless, End-to-End Email Encryption
Safeguard the CUI you share via email with your DoD stakeholders with strong encryption ciphers. Apply your security policies to your email encryption to automate the decision of whether or not to encrypt each email. Automated key exchange ensures user simplicity so your employees work with their normal email standard clients without the need for plugins or training. End-to-end encryption ensures email content and attachments are encrypted from sending client to receiving client while the private decryption key stays in receiving client so neither server-side vendors or attackers can decrypt. Finally, apply your DLP to outbound traffic and your anti-malware and anti-phishing to inbound traffic. You’ll look great in front of your C3PAO and take another step toward CMMC compliance.
Track All CUI File Activity and Simplify Audits With Unified Logging and Reporting
See who sent what to whom, when, and how so you can track FCI and CUI entering and leaving your organization, detect suspicious activity, and take action on anomalies. Depend on Kiteworks’ comprehensive, immutable audit trails for all user, automated, and admin activities, including all actions on content, permissions, and configuration. Analyze, alert, and report on the events using built-in tools, or forward to your SIEM via syslog or the Splunk Forwarder for deeper analysis.
Tightly Manage Configurations to Maintain Maximum Security in Compliance With CMMC
The Kiteworks hardened virtual appliance follows the principle of least functionality required for CMMC compliance by exposing only a few essential ports, with all nonessential services disabled. Further, the server prevents users and administrators from accessing the operating system or installing software, enforces strict separation of duties, and logs every configuration change. And when you prepare for audits, it provides the reporting you need to validate configurations and documented controls.
LEARN MORE ABOUT PROTECTING YOUR SENSITIVE CONTENT WITH KITEWORKS SECURITY INTEGRATIONS
Kiteworks SafeEDIT Facilitates CMMC 2.0 Compliance
Kiteworks SafeEDIT helps facilitate CMMC 2.0 compliance for organizations and protect CUI information shared in the DIB by enabling secure external collaboration on sensitive files without relinquishing control over the original source documents, which always remain safely stored within the owner’s environment. By streaming an editable video rendition of files rather than transferring possession, SafeEDIT ensures that CUI data never leaves the organization’s security perimeter, providing the highest level of security control and tracking. The solution offers a native application experience for editing and collaborating on the streamed file renditions, facilitating seamless remote workflows while maintaining strict data protection. SafeEDIT supports secure collaboration universally across file types without proprietary wrappers, enabling productivity without compromising data custody, a critical requirement when handling CUI in the DIB supply chain.
CMMC FAQs
CMMC 2.0 is an update to the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) that was initially released in January 2021. It is the Department of Defense’s (DoD) method for requiring organizations in the DoD supply chain to protect federal contract information (FCI) and controlled unclassified information (CUI) to the appropriate level determined (there are three levels in CMMC 2.0). CMMC 2.0 is a restructure of CMMC’s maturity levels by eliminating two of the original five ratings, improved assessment protocols that reduce costs for contractors, and the introduction of a more flexible path to certification through Plans of Action & Milestones (POA&Ms)
Compliance with NIST standards are levied as contractual requirements through inclusion of clauses such as FAR 52.204-21 and DFARS 252.204-7012. CMMC requirements result in a contractor self-assessment, or a third-party assessment by a CMMC Third Party Assessor Organization (C3PAO), to determine whether the applicable NIST standard (as identified by the DFARS clause) has been met. Under CMMC 2.0, a Level 2 assessment will be conducted against the NIST SP 800-171 standard and a Level 3 assessment will be based on a subset of NIST SP 800-172 requirements.
CMMC C3PAO is a CMMC Third Party Assessor Organization (C3PAO) authorized and certified by the CMMC Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB) to conduct assessments of contractors and subcontractors seeking certification to demonstrate compliance with the CMMC standard. C3PAOs are entrusted with assessing and certifying that companies in the defense industrial base (DIB) supply chain have met the cybersecurity requirements of the CMMC standard. Their responsibilities include evaluating and issuing certificates of adherence to the CMMC standard. The C3PAO must review and certify the contractor or subcontractor’s audit and self-assessment reports based on the DoD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model. The C3PAO must also be able to recommend and implement corrective actions as needed.
CMMC 2.0 applies to all third parties within the defense supply chain, including contractors, vendors, and any other contracted third parties related to the support of the department of defense (DoD). All civilian organizations that do business with the DoD must comply with CMMC2.0, based on the type of CUI and FCI that they handle and exchange. The list of entities includes:
- DoD prime contractors
- DoD subcontractors
- Suppliers at all tiers in the DIB
- DoD small business suppliers
- Commercial suppliers that process, handle, or store CUI
- Foreign suppliers
- Team members of DoD contractors that handle CUI such as IT managed service providers
According to Kiteworks, working with a CMMC Third Party Assessor Organization (C3PAO) provides several benefits for organizations seeking certification under CMMC 2.0 standards:
- Expertise: A certified third-party assessor has extensive experience assessing cybersecurity programs across multiple industries and can provide valuable insight into best practices for achieving CMMC compliance.
- Objectivity: An independent third-party assessor provides unbiased feedback on an organization’s security posture that can help identify areas where improvements are needed to meet specific CMMC controls, pass a CMMC compliance audit, and achieve CMMC compliance.
- Cost Savings: Working with a certified third-party assessor can save time and money compared to hiring internal staff or consultants who may not have expertise in assessing cybersecurity programs, conducting CMMC compliance audits, or even demonstrating CMMC compliance.
- Efficiency: A certified third-party assessor can quickly identify gaps in an organization’s security posture, helping to reduce time spent preparing for CMMC compliance.
- Peace of Mind: Having an independent third-party assessor review a DoD supplier’s cybersecurity program provides peace of mind, ensuring that organizations have taken all necessary steps toward achieving CMMC compliance.
FEATURED RESOURCES
Kiteworks-enabled Private Content Networks Simplify and Deliver Rapid CMMC 2.0 Compliance
Kiteworks-enabled Private Content Networks Simplify and Deliver Rapid CMMC 2.0 Compliance
CMMC 2.0 Rulemaking: Decoding the DoD’s Submission to OMB for Review
CMMC 2.0 Rulemaking: Decoding the DoD’s Submission to OMB for Review
Meeting the FedRAMP Equivalency Requirement of CMMC
