Federal Practice

CMMC

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification for the Defense Industrial Base. NIST SP 800-171, CUI protection, and SPRS scoring.

All FISMA & NIST RMF FedRAMP CMMC Federal AI Governance GovCon Compliance Federal Cybersecurity Federal Zero Trust Federal GRC Engineering AI Governance GRC Engineering Cybersecurity Cloud Security HIPAA SOC 2
CMMC

CUI Marking and Dissemination Controls: The Four-Layer Guide for DoDI 5200.48 Compliance

Most Controlled Unclassified Information marking guidance tells you to add the banner and portion marks. The marking that fails contractors is the over-marking, specifically a portion mark on the Designation Indicator block, which DoD Instruction...

Read the Guide
CMMC

CMMC Enclave vs Full GCC High Migration: The Six-Question Decision Tree for the November 2026 Deadline

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Phase 2 begins November 10, 2026, per 32 CFR ยง170.3(e). On that date, mandatory third-party assessment by a Certified Third-Party Assessor Organization (C3PAO) becomes the default for Level 2 contracts,...

Read the Guide
CMMC

DFARS 252.204-7012: The Cybersecurity Clause Every Defense Contractor Must Understand

The defense contractor's general counsel forwards two documents on a Tuesday morning. The first is the new DoD contract referencing Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 252.204-7021, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) clause. The...

Read the Guide
CMMC

CMMC Level 2 Assessment Preparation: The 90-Day Readiness Sprint

The email arrives on a Tuesday. Your contracting officer has forwarded a notice: the new contract includes Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 252.204-7021, and the performance period begins in four months. You need Cybersecurity...

Read the Guide
CMMC

SPRS Score Explained: How to Calculate and Improve Your DoD Compliance Score

What is your Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) score right now? Not the score you submitted. The score that reflects your actual implementation status today, measured against the 110 controls in NIST SP 800-171 Rev...

Read the Guide
CMMC

CMMC Enclave Architecture: Scoping Your CUI Environment to Minimize Assessment Cost

The following is an illustrative composite drawn from current CMMC assessment market conditions. Contractor A had 340 workstations, four office locations, a shared IT environment spanning HR, finance, and engineering, and a standard enterprise network...

Read the Guide
The Authority Brief

One compliance analysis per week from Josef Kamara, CPA, CISSP, CISA. Federal and private compliance, written for practitioners.