Description
The United States’ adversaries are actively stealing the country’s military and industrial competitive advantage. Ubiquitous access to every organization’s multi-interconnected information systems facilitates this theft. The US Federal government recognizes the risk of theft and sensitive information from its contractors’ information systems, such as Federal Contract Information (FCI) and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Therefore, all Federal contractors have certain basic cybersecurity requirements they must implement in their internal information technology (IT) systems that process Federal contract-related data.
Additionally, contractors that process information related to the Department of Defense contracts are beholden to DFARS clauses 252.204-7012 / 7019 / 7020 / 7021, which requires more advanced cybersecurity safeguards. These safeguards are a challenge for any organization of any size to implement.
In this course, Adam Austin, Co-Founder, Cybersecurity Lead, and CTO of Totem Technologies, will give an overview of these requirements in layperson’s terms, describe some of the implementation challenges, and provide resources that you can use to navigate the cybersecurity landscape.
Target Audience: APEX Accelerator counselors, MEP counselors, DoD contract officers and program managers, DoD contractors and IT staff, IT managed service providers, IT managed security service providers
Meet Your Instructor:
ADAM AUSTIN, Co-Founder and Cybersecurity Lead, Totem.Tech
Adam Austin is the Co-Founder and Cybersecurity Lead at Totem.Tech, a minority veteran-owned Prime DoD contractor. Mr. Austin has over a decade of experience securing classified, unclassified, and HIPAA-environment US Government IT systems, having worked with NASA, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Systems (CMS), and all branches of the Department of Defense. Adam holds a BA in Physics from Western Maryland College and a Master’s in Information Assurance from Capitol Technology University, is CISA, CISM, and Security+ certified, and is a CMMC Registered Practitioner (CMMC-RP). Adam’s mission is to leverage his experience to help small businesses in regulatory environments implement affordable, compliant, risk-based cybersecurity programs.
Dana Lacy (verified owner) –
Outstanding and informative discussion about the current state CMMC. Appreciated the clarification of the “knowns”/”unknowns” of possible schedule, potential costs, and implementation criteria. Alli shared his company’s experience and practical insights which made it much easier to evaluate the ROI of this endeavor and create a timeline to effectively prepare for the future requirement.
Melissa Barber (verified owner) –
GREAT information laid out in a way that was less intimidating than most IT-related evolving security topics. Provided resources and outlets for continued education on the CMMC state and how it effects the contracting future for the DoD. The timeline really helps to facilitate planning for this upcoming requirement.