For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), federal contracts can drastically increase revenue. In many industries, the average government contract carried a value of more than $200,000 as recently as 2020.
But there’s something standing in between that revenue and your business: security compliance.
As you’d expect, government agencies carry stringent security requirements—requirements that only a tiny percentage of SMBs are able to meet.
And those requirements are now underlined by CMMC, the new standard of federal security compliance.
What Is CMMC?
CMMC stands for Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. Through a system of compliance levels, CMMC helps the Department of Defense determine whether or not a business has the necessary security to work with vulnerable data.
Recently, the DoD launched CMMC 2.0 to safeguard sensitive national security information from increasingly frequent cyberattacks.
In short, it’s a way for the government to know if your cybersecurity is good enough to work within a government program.
So, in order to work with the DoD and other government agencies, your business will need to be CMMC compliant in most cases.
For most companies, that means satisfying two things:
- Building a CMMC framework
- Using CMMC best practices
The Levels of CMMC
CMMC is administered on a scale; Level 1 is the most basic level and Level 5 is the highest level.
So, achieving Level 1 compliance means having basic cybersecurity infrastructure and practices in place, such as a basic security system and antivirus software.
Meanwhile, achieving Level 5 compliance will require far more…
- Protocols for auditing security infrastructure
-Systems to identify and remedy vulnerabilities
- The ability to detect and mitigate threats
- And much more
Your business should strive for at least Level 4 compliance no matter your business plan, but especially if you plan to compete for government contracts.
Does CMMC Matter If I Don’t Want to Qualify for Federal Contracts?
This is where one of the “yes and no” responses fits perfectly. Why?
On one hand, CMMC doesn’t really matter to your business’ ability to obtain revenue if you’re not interested in government contracts.
But on the other hand, CMMC is representative of the security standards set forth by the Department of Defense. That means following CMMC will bring your own security up to par with what satisfies the DoD.
So, administering the basic principles of CMMC can give you peace of mind because you’ll know your business is protected by the best security practices.
How Does My Business Become CMMC Certified?
A third-party certification is required in order for your business to become CMMC certified. That means you can’t self-certify.
For many SMBs, CMMC certification is made up of the following journey:
1. A thorough audit of cybersecurity infrastructure and practices.
2. Preparation for CMMC certification.
3. The certification itself.
And once certification is obtained, your business will qualify for government contracts based on your CMMC certification level.
Luckily there are third-party organizations that can help you prepare for certification OR directly certify your business.
And here at CyberMyte, we’re proud to be one of those organizations.
Our founders have spent years working in cybersecurity within the United States military, the Department of Defense, and other government agencies. We’ve worked on both sides of the equation—as contractors and as federal employees.
That’s why we’re perfectly positioned to prepare your business for CMMC certification OR to certify you ourselves.
CyberMyte Becomes Your Own Cybersecurity Department
You could spend months learning about federal security requirements. You could spend years trying to make a generic cloud solution work for all the unique parts of your business. You could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an IT staff to handle the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance.
Or you could partner with CyberMyte and have it all done for you. We're ready to make your business CMMC certified.
