Mark Pannek believed he knew something the federal government needed to know about the cybersecurity practices of his former employer, Archer Daniels Midland. Pannek, a former senior IT governance and compliance official at ADM, alleged that the global agricultural company
The Billion-Dollar Cyber Whistleblower Case That Just Hit A Wall Read More »
There is a misperception about Microsoft Office 365 government cloud that if you purchase GCC or GCC High, your organization is well on its way to CMMC compliance. Given the fact that the platform supports the controls and is FedRAMP
The Compliance Gaps Software Alone Won’t Close For You Read More »
Passing a CMMC assessment is an important milestone. But it isn’t the end of your compliance journey. Once the assessors leave, defense contractors still need to maintain the security controls they demonstrated during the assessment, keep documentation and evidence current,
Your CMMC Assessment Is Over. Now What? Read More »
The Pentagon’s pause of CMMC Phase 2 rocked the defense industrial base (DIB). Some contractors interpreted “pause” as permission to stop. At CMMC CON 2026, speakers from across the DIB, the Pentagon, and the legal community made clear that interpretation
Takeaways from CMMC CON 2026: Protecting the Mission Read More »
For many defense contractors, preparing for CMMC raises a difficult question: How much of our IT environment actually needs to be in scope? If Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is spread across employee devices, email, file shares, business applications, and other
What Is a Federal Enclave? A Guide to CUI Enclaves and CMMC Scope Read More »
Across the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), cybersecurity numbers appear to be moving in the right direction. According to the 2026 State of the Defense Industrial Base Report, the average self‑reported SPRS score reached +51, a five‑year high. But the same research revealed that confidence in the accuracy of those
SPRS Scores Are Rising. Confidence Is Falling. What That Means for CMMC Compliance. Read More »
On Sept. 1, Honeywell Aerospace agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle False Claims Act allegations that it failed to comply with NIST SP 800-171 cybersecurity requirements on a Pentagon contract. The case, which stemmed from a whistleblower
Steptoe’s Michael Gruden Breaks Down CMMC Compliance and Enforcement at CMMC CON 2026 Read More »
Most contractors in the defense industrial base are manufacturers, engineers, and specialized suppliers. They don’t have a CISO. They don’t have a security operations center. Usually, one IT generalist handles help desk tickets, manages cloud infrastructure, and tries to figure
DIY or Partner? We Break Down the Cost Difference at CMMC CON 2026 Read More »
Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is one of the most important obligations defense contractors face today. But the challenge can go beyond simply protecting CUI. For contractors who also work in the commercial space, it becomes about protecting CUI without turning your entire business into a
How to Build a CUI Enclave for CMMC Compliance Read More »
Our 2026 State of the DIB research found something worth sitting with. Self-reported SPRS scores hit their highest point ever. Confidence in those scores hit its lowest. Eighty-three percent of contractors have a documented SSP. Only 65% are very or
Once Again, the Proof Is in the Evidence and FedRAMP Is the Blind Spot Read More »
