TYSONS CORNER, Va., March 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The CMMC Academy, an initiative of Celerium Inc., today announced the availability of a CMMC 1.0 Reference Guide to help defense suppliers more easily understand the new U.S. Department of Defense cybersecurity compliance program. The online guide is available to members of the Academy. Membership is free for contractors and subcontractors in the defense industry, and applications are accepted at https://CMMC.Academy.

“Although large defense contractors are experienced with security control frameworks such as NIST 800-53 and 171, CMMC extends compliance programs to smaller subcontractors,” said Tommy McDowell, General Manager of Celerium. “CMMC is composed of five levels in an effort to reach 300,000 or more defense suppliers. Our new CMMC 1.0 Reference Guide is targeted to companies that need to comply with levels 1, 2, and 3, which are less complex than levels 4 and 5,” he added.

The CMMC Academy provides CMMC information for all defense contractors and subcontractors – large and small. For example, one online video provides an introduction to CMMC for small to medium-sized contractors, while another video explores the differences between CMMC 1.0 and NIST 800-171, which is more appropriate for primes and larger contractors.

An issue facing defense contractors working to understand the CMMC 1.0 requirements is navigating the 338-page PDF provided by the Department of Defense. The Academy’s Reference Guide makes the requirements easier to explore. By using the Reference Guide, you can:

• Easily select the specific levels and domains to explore and see the practices available.
• Choose to see only the practices for a selected level or see the aggregated practices (organized by domain).
• View a summary of the practices in a given level, and then navigate to learn more about a specific practice.

CMMC Research Mechanism

In addition to learning about each practice in CMMC 1.0, the Reference Guide provides an optional research mechanism intended to give defense contractors the ability to provide feedback regarding which areas of CMMC may be difficult to understand.

Each section within the Reference Guide contains a short online survey whereby users can express how understandable and useful a given practice is in getting prepared for a CMMC assessment. Respondents will indicate the CMMC level in their response in order to enable the Academy to analyze practice effectiveness by level of defense suppliers.

Ongoing development

Knowledge about CMMC will continue to develop, especially as the new CMMC Accreditation Body releases training information for CMMC assessors and third-party assessment organizations (C3PAOs) throughout this year. The CMMC Academy will continue to augment its Reference Guide and informational solutions as new material and insights about CMMC evolve.

Beyond helping defense suppliers learning about CMMC through online videos and the Reference Guide, the Academy also is exploring the creation of a free CMMC planning tool for defense contractors. 

The CMMC Academy is a free initiative of Celerium Inc.

About Celerium, Inc.
Celerium is the leading supplier of cyber threat intelligence sharing solutions for critical infrastructure organizations serving the defense, aviation, automotive and financial services industries.

Celerium also powers the next generation of information-sharing organizations, including ISAOs and ISACs. Relied on by government agencies, enterprise risk management teams, CISOs, and SOC analysts, Celerium supports all critical infrastructure and market sectors. Learn more at www.celerium.com.

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SOURCE Celerium