DoD Contractors Must Be NIST Certified By Nov. 30 — What’s Your Plan Of Action?
The DoD’s newly issued interim rule has set the deadline for NIST compliance — will you be ready by Nov. 30, 2020? Advantage Industries will help you get started right away.
The Department of Defense (DoD) has issued their much-anticipated interim rule, which has put all contractors on the clock — by November 30, 2020, you will need to comply with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Assessment methodology. From that date on, your DoD contracts will contain DFARS clause 252.204-7012, requiring you to be fully NIST compliant.
Are you ready?
NIST Is No Longer A Suggestion, It’s A Requirement
Whereas NIST used to be a series of guidelines to help contractors like you maintain the security of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), it’s now becoming a requirement. If you haven’t been managing and strategizing your compliance so far, you’ve got a lot of work to do.
There are four key steps to the NIST certification process:
- Assessment: Determining the state of your current compliance
- Remediation: Noting any shortcomings, and addressing them
- Certification: Reassessing and confirming compliance
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Ongoing monitoring: Periodically reevaluating compliance, and updating with newly issued changes to the framework
Can You Manage Your NIST Compliance Independently?
Possibly — if you have the right resources and sufficiently capable cybersecurity experts on staff, you could attempt to prepare for your assessment and certification in-house.
But that’s a big “if”. Remember, you have to do all of this by Nov. 30. Given the extremely short time frame you have in which to complete the process, it’s a big risk to try to manage it alone.
That’s why it’s wise to get expert assistance. The problem is that very few NIST auditors will actually guide you in the compliance process.
A vast majority of these third-parties will perform the assessment and the certification, but they won’t manage the remediation process or provide ongoing monitoring. That’s all left up to you.
Advantage Industries Will Manage Every Step Of Your NIST Readiness
Unlike a majority of the third-parties you’ll talk to, Advantage Industries will manage and facilitate all four steps of the NIST certification process.
We will assess your current compliance, manage the remediation process directly, and provide ongoing support to ensure your certification is maintained. While we are not a NIST auditor, we will either work with your current auditor or connect you with one.
You’re on the clock — even if you aren’t fully NIST certified by Nov. 30, at least starting the process now will put you ahead of your competitors.
Don’t Forget — Compliance Will Make You More Competitive
While complying with these new requirements will undoubtedly require a further investment of time and money beyond your standard compliance efforts, it’s important to note the silver lining — speedy NIST compliance (and compliance with CMMC after the fact) will likely reduce your competition.
As it becomes more difficult to operate in the defense sector, smaller competitors will likely drop out. Becoming compliant with NIST and CMMC will require more resources, and not all current contractors will see the benefit of investing further, especially if they don’t have the capital to do so.
That makes the market less competitive for contractors that do make the effort to become compliant. And that’s not the only benefit — these new requirements aren’t arbitrary.
Implementing them will have additional benefits as well, making your company more secure and of greater value to your clients.
Book Your NIST Assessment Now And Get A FREE Dark Web Scan
Let’s get started right away.
CLICK HERE to book your assessment.
If you do, you’ll receive a FREE Dark Web scan, and furthermore, 4 out of 5 businesses that Schedule a meeting with us can also qualify for a FREE network security scan. This scan will give you valuable information on the state of your network and the scale of remediation you can expect.
Put simply, this is the best way to start your NIST compliance process ahead of the deadline at the end of November.
