The Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB) for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program is creating an Industry Advisory Council (IAC) to provide feedback on the CMMC implementation to the DoD and CMMC-AB, the CMMC-AB announced this week.
The IAC will be chaired by CMMC-AB Treasurer Yong-Gon Chon, and will be made up of 12 other volunteer members from various markets in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) supply chain.
“The IAC will serve as a crucible for industry dialogue, bringing the best and brightest together to address cyber readiness challenges in the DIB and strengthen CMMC to it maximum potential. … Their leadership, skill, and professional expertise will greatly contribute to the overall success of the CMMC program,” CMMC-AB Board Chair Karlton Johnson said in a press release.
The CMMC program aims to enforce cybersecurity standards of varying levels up and down the DIB supply chain, and, by bringing in industry partners inside that supply chain, the CMMC-AB hopes to find a “unified voice” among those that will have to attain CMMC accreditation.
“With an estimated 300,000 companies comprising the DIB, obtaining crystallized relevant feedback from industry is crucial for the long-term success of the CMMC program,” the release says. “IAC members live the challenges of implementing CMMC every day and can use this forum to share and validate real-world experiences and amplify feedback from their industry colleagues.”
The CMMC program is still in its pilot program stages and currently under an internal review at DoD for “potential improvements.”
While the board will be responsible for providing feedback to both the CMMC-AB and DoD, the DoD is not currently involved with the development of the council, DoD spokesperson Jessica Maxwell tells MeriTalk.
