Is your business equipped to meet stricter compliance regulations? For businesses aiming to secure government contracts, they must ensure their cloud services align with stringent Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirements. However, ensuring compliance is more than just ticking a box; it’s about safeguarding sensitive data and keeping your business competitive.
This guide will walk you through actionable steps to verify your cloud service provider meets CMMC security standards, along with exploring how our CMMC compliance expertise can support your business.
CMMC Compliance: Why It Matters
According to the CMMC 2.0 framework, CMMC requires companies entrusted with sensitive unclassified Department of Defense (DoD) information to implement cybersecurity standards at progressively advanced levels. With tightening cybersecurity regulations, CMMC is a non-negotiable requirement for contractors handling controlled unclassified information (CUI). If your business stores, processes, or transmits CUI in the cloud, ensuring compliance with CMMC standards is essential to secure contracts, prevent penalties, and protect sensitive data.
Ensuring Your Cloud Services Meet CMMC Requirements
CMMC requires a proactive approach to security, data protection, and regulatory compliance. Let’s break down each essential step to help businesses align their cloud environments with CMMC requirements.
Step 1: Choose a Cloud Provider with FedRAMP Authorization
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) sets strict security benchmarks for cloud service providers (CSPs) working with government contractors. Using a FedRAMP-authorized CSP ensures that your cloud infrastructure aligns with government-approved security protocols.
The FedRAMP certification means the provider has undergone rigorous security assessments, penetration testing, and continuous monitoring. Additionally, it means their systems meet the highest federal cybersecurity standards, reducing the risk of data breaches and compliance issues. Some authorized CSPs include Microsoft Azure Government and AWS GovCloud.
Step 2: Verify Your Cloud Provider Implements NIST 800-171 Controls
Level 2 and higher CMMC compliance aligns with NIST 800-171, a set of security requirements that protect CUI. Ensure your cloud provider demonstrated their adherence to these guidelines as failing to implement NIST 800-171 controls can result in non-compliance penalties, increased cyber risks, and loss of DoD contracts.
We recommend requesting your CSPs System Security Plan, which details how they implement security measures like access controls, audit logging, and encryption standards like AES-256 and TLS 1.2+.
Step 3: Conduct a Gap Assessment on Cloud Security
In addition to your CSP meeting FedRAMP and NIST 800-171 standards, your business must also comply with CMMC security requirements. This is where conducting a gap assessment is invaluable in identifying missing security controls that jeopardize your compliance. As CMMC places responsibility on the business to ensure end-to-end security, it’s essential to perform a CMMC readiness assessment using:
- Automated compliance scanning tools to identify vulnerabilities.
- Third-party cybersecurity audits to review cloud security configurations.
- Internal security policy reviews to verify adherence to CMMC security requirements.
Step 4: Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication
Mandating strong authentication measures to prevent unauthorized access, it’s integral to implement solutions like multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure CMMC compliance. An affiliated IT company, SD IT Support, emphasizes the importance of MFA in a recent article of theirs. Focusing on data protection, they reinforce why MFA is crucial in preventing unauthorized access.
Enforcing MFA helps protect sensitive government data through requiring all users to provide at least two forms of ID to access cloud services, along with role-based access controls providing access to information based on each employee’s needs.
Step 5: Implement Data Encryption for CUI in the Cloud
CMMC compliance requires all CUI to be encrypted at rest and in transit using strong encryption protocols. To ensure sensitive data remains secure, ensure your CSP meets encryption standards like:
- AES-256 encryption for data at rest (stored in databases, backups, or cloud storage).
- TLS 1.2+ encryption for data in transit (moving between servers, devices, and networks).
- End-to-end encryption to prevent third-party interception of sensitive information.
Step 6: Enable Continuous Monitoring and Incident Response
CMMC compliance requires ongoing security monitoring and a well-documented incident response plan. With constantly evolving cyberattacks and compliance risks, real-time monitoring ensures that security threats are detected before they can escalate. To achieve this, deploy SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) tools to detect security incidents in real-time and use cloud-native monitoring solutions like Azure Sentinel, AWS GuardDuty, or Google Chronicle. Additionally, develop an incident response plan outlining steps for detecting, reporting, and mitigating cybersecurity threats.
Helping Businesses with CMMC Compliance
Ensuring CMMC compliance is complex, but our experts make it easy for businesses in Charlottesville and Fredericksburg.
- Our IT support in Charlottesville helps businesses strengthen their cloud security, data protection, and compliance frameworks, ensuring your IT infrastructure meets CMMC standards.
- With IT managed services in Fredericksburg, we provide 24/7 security monitoring, compliance assessments, and cloud security management to keep your business CMMC-ready.
Book Your 1:1 Compliance Consultation Today!
Don’t risk compliance violations or security breaches. Make sure your cloud services meet CMMC standards immediately. Schedule a 1:1 consultation with us today to assess your cloud security and compliance strategy.
