June 2022

Keeping up to date on the changing CMMC security requirements may seem like a hassle that’s only worth undertaking if you do business with the Department of Defense. But in reality, meeting the new CMMC compliance mandates is a great way to make your business more secure and agile.

That’s why, even if you aren’t a DoD contractor, the CMMC security updates can be beneficial to your business. Keep reading for an overview of what to know about the new CMMC Framework and how to meet it in a way that benefits your business.

Read here how to meet the CMMC compliance challenge head on

How CMMC is changing

By May 2023, the DoD expects to implement CMMC 2.0, at least in interim form.

Among other changes, CMMC 2.0 reduces the number of compliance “levels” from five to three. This is a major benefit to businesses that need to meet CMMC security mandates because it simplifies the process of choosing which compliance path to follow and adhering to its associated rules. The 3 levels are:

Level 1 (Foundational)

This level must match the 15 controls of FAR52.204-21 “basic” controls to protect

Federal Contract Information. Certification is required annually. It is possible for your

organization to self-assess. This is similar to the previous model in CMMC 1.0.

Level 2 (Advanced):

This level is comparable to CMMC 1.0 level 3. Its requirements mirror NIST SP 800-71, which includes 14 levels and 110 security controls developed by the National Institute of Technology and Standards (NIST) to protect sensitive information. The 20 requirements of CMMC 1.0 level 3 compliance have been dropped.

Level 3 (Expert):

Under this CMMC 2.0 assessment level, which is comparable to CMMC 1.0 level 5, businesses will require government-led assessments. The focus is on reducing Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) that could lead to data exfiltration or compromised applications. Besides the 110 controls that are required for the new Level 2 certification, the NIST’s SP 800-172 is required for Level 3 certification.

5 great reasons to choose CMMC compliance

Some businesses will need to meet CMMC compliance requirements because they sell to the DoD, and CMMC 2.0 is a mandate. But even if that is not the case, there are great reasons to become CMMC-compliant.

1. Overall CMMC security protection

Implementing security controls using CMMC 2.0 levels is a great way to maximize your overall security posture. It will help to protect sensitive information within your organization and increase the security of your supply chain.

2. Tailor cyber hygiene to your business

CMMC uses maturity processes and cybersecurity best practices from multiple frameworks as its foundation. And, because CMMC security offers different compliance levels, it’s an excellent framework to follow if you want a cybersecurity plan tailored to your business. Not every organization faces the same level of threats or the same level of data sensitivity. With CMMC, you can establish cyber hygiene policies, such as vulnerability disclosure programs, that reflect your organization’s particular needs.

3. Prepare for upcoming regulatory changes

As we’ve noted, there is a lot of overlap between the CMMC security requirements and other compliance standards, like those developed by NIST. Thus, by becoming CMMC-complaint, you prepare your business to meet similar compliance mandates that may be rolled out in the future.

4. Validate your cybersecurity from the outside

CMMC assessment is a great way to determine how well your business meets security mandates. This can be done not only by internal stakeholders, who are not objective observers, but by outsiders who understand how risks can flow through supply chains and what it takes to build a strong cybersecurity culture within an organization.

5. Winning additional contracts

The higher your level of cyber security, the more competitive you’ll be. Supply chain security is increasingly viewed as a necessity rather than a nice-to-have. Businesses that fail to prioritize security risk losing contracts and relationships with key enterprises. Additionally, coordinated vulnerability disclosure programs that are apart of the CMMC security framework, help to build trust and positive cooperation across the supply chain.

Here’s Why Your CISO Wants To Implement A CMMC Framework

The future of supply chain security

As you assess what the CMMC security changes mean for your business, don’t think merely in terms of whether you are specifically required to undergo CMMC assessments. Instead, think about how increasing awareness of cybersecurity and building a stronger cyber culture within your organization will pay dividends now and in the future, regardless of your specific CMMC compliance requirements.

After all, security is always changing, and compliance frameworks like the CMMC change with it. Keeping pace with changing requirements is a good way to encourage accountability across your supply chain and enforce strong cyber hygiene standards.

Indeed, it’s a safe bet that, going forward, cyber security requirements will become tighter, not looser. Embrace the trend now by using frameworks like the CMMC to supercharge your cyber hygiene and disclosure programs, rather than waiting until a specific mandates is handed down that affects you.

The most obvious types of fallout from supply chain cyber security threats are the impact on regulatory compliance or the damage to a business’s reputation.

But here’s another major consequence of supply chain security attacks that keep occurring despite dogged efforts to stop them: Losses on the stock market. When businesses are affected by supply chain cyber security threats – even if the threats originate from an external vendor, rather than the business’s own systems – their stock price usually takes a major hit.

Here’s why supply chain cyber security threats can wreak such havoc on stocks, and what to do to protect your business from watching its market value plummet due to supply chain vulnerabilities. Your goals should be to resolve the incident in a way that protects your operations, customers and reputation, while also demonstrating to partners that supply chain security is a key priority.

More resources below to keep your supply chain secure:

Take a look at how Vulnerability disclosure programs can help secure your business

Watch here to understand how to give your supply chain monitoring the advantage it needs.

How supply chain security threats impact stock value

When a supply chain breach occurs, you’re at risk of losing share price for a variety of reasons.

Probably the most obvious is the hit you’ll take to your company’s reputation. Again, even if the breach originated in a third-party product, investors may still question your commitment to security, given that you were unable to detect and mitigate the breach quickly enough to prevent it from harming the organization.

Regulatory fines, too, could follow supply chain breaches if the breach leads to loss of regulated data. Those fines will impact quarterly earnings reports,that investors use to decide whether to buy or sell stock in your company.

In more extreme cases, supply chain security threats may become vectors that allow threat actors to take control of your systems. In turn, attackers could take actions like publishing fake news through your media channels or inject false price quotes into data feeds. Such activity may breed a sense among investors that you’ve totally lost control of your business operations, leading to a dramatic fall in market value.

Types of supply chain cyber security threats against stock markets

As the following image shows, supply chain breaches can target both suppliers and customers.

Either way, the fallout from a stock market perspective is likely to be negative for the companies involved. Any type of supply chain attack – from malware infection, to brute-force attacks, to vulnerability exploits and beyond – can undercut a business’s reputation among investors and lead to swift sell-off – which brings down stock prices.

Stock losses resulting from supply chain attacks

The risk we’re describing here is not just theoretical. Here are some of the most recent major supply chain cyber threat exploits. You’ll notice that they led to significant loss of company value on the stock market.

Nvidia cyber attack

When Nvidia was attacked by a ransomware group called Lapsus$, Reuters reported that Nvidia’s schematics, drivers, firmware and other sensitive intellectual property may have been compromised. The credentials of 71 000 employees were leaked, after which Lapsus$ made this information available to other hacking communities. The result was an immediate drop in Nvidia’s stock price by 7%. Although the drop was modest, and the stock quickly recovered, it was still a clear example of how supply chain cyber security threats can hamper stock value.

Mimecast breach

Mimecast is an email security and cyber resiliance platform. When the news was released in January 2021 that they had been hit by supply chain cyber security threats, this upset shareholders trust in the stock.

Mimecast stock lost more than 12 percent of its value following the disclosure of a compromised certificate. Moreover, because about 10 percent of the company’s customers were using the compromised certificate, this supply chain attack likely also impacted other businesses.

The Chief Information Security Officer, Terence Jackson at Thycotic, a Washington, D.C. based provider of privileged access management (PAM) solutions said,”The certificates that were compromised were used by Mimecast email security products. These products access customers’ Microsoft 365 exchange servers in order for them to provide security services (backup, spam, and phishing protection). Since these certificates were legit, an adversary would have been able to connect without raising suspicions to eavesdrop and exfiltrate email communications.”

SolarWinds attack

The SolarWinds supply chain breach, in which attackers injected malware into SolarWinds’s source code, was associated with a huge selloff that took place just days before the breach was publicly disclosed.

While it has not yet been proven that the 35 investors who sold their stock right before public disclosure had insider knowledge of the breach, the timing of the selloff doesn’t seem to be coincidental.

Assuming it wasn’t, this is also an example of how a supply chain attack can trigger a major loss of stock value.

Staying on top of supply chain cyber security threats

Once a supply chain attack takes place, the damage to market value is done. The best way to contain supply chain cyber security threats, then, is to be proactive, so you can address risks before they turn into active breaches.

Start by gaining full visibility into your supply chain. This is the only way to know which vulnerabilities may impact you.

Then, take preventative measures – like application controls and network segmentation – that reduce the likelihood or mitigate the impact of cyber security incidents.

You should also educate your employees and partners about cyber security, and make it clear that finding and containing supply chain cyber security threats is a top priority.

Finally, have a crisis management plan for your supply chain security in place so that you can react swiftly if an attack does occur. Although managing your response won’t prevent all financial harm, it can reduce the total damage.

Supply chain cyber security threats aren’t bad just for your users or your IT team. They also pose a serious risk to your business’s market value. To prevent major financial losses, it’s critical to have a supply chain threat detection and mitigation solution in place.

Learn how Findings can help your business stay ahead of supply chain cyber security threats

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Top 5 Reasons Why CMMC Security Will Be Good For Your Business