5 Ways to Comply with the DFARS

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) deals with a lot of controlled unclassified information (CUI), which necessitates "safeguarding or distribution restrictions in accordance with and compatible with relevant law, regulations, and government-wide policy." The Department of Defense announced an interim regulation to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) in December 2015, requiring DoD contractors to comply with certain cybersecurity standards by December 31, 2017.

If you want to compete on a DoD contract, you must comply with the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations.

What Does It Mean to Comply with the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations?

DoD contractors must have National Institute of Guidelines and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-171-compliant security measures to prevent data breaches, as well as processes to notify a breach if one occurs, according to DFARS compliance standards. DoD contractors must also examine themselves on a regular basis to ensure that CUI is safeguarded under DFARS.

What Can You Do to Comply with DFARS?

You must sufficiently handle all 14 security requirement families specified in NIST SP 800-171 to be DFARS-compliant. These five pointers will assist you in getting started:

a}-Perform risk and security assessments

Processing, storing, and transferring CUI has some operational hazards. That's why it's critical that you analyse your internal procedures and IT systems for weaknesses that might put CUI at risk. This will assist you in identifying and correcting flaws, hence reducing or eliminating hazards.

Given the increasing complexity of security and regulatory requirements, it's important to enlist the help of a DFARS compliance specialist like Charles IT to conduct these evaluations.

b)- Implement Information Technology and Physical Security Measures

You must monitor, regulate, and safeguard your IT systems and the physical buildings that house them in order to maintain effective information security. Limiting physical access to your workplace, encrypting communications, segregating internal networks from publicly available systems, blocking unwanted data transfers to shared system resources, and more are all part of this process.

c}- Set up authentication, identification, and access controls

Register and control every person and device that connects to your data and IT systems, and ensure that each user only has access to the information they need to complete their jobs. For example, HR workers should not have easy access to high-level information from the financial department.

Each time individuals or devices access your data or system, you must be able to identify, trace, and authenticate them using correct security standards. This includes, among other things, enabling multifactor authentication, banning password reuse, enforcing password complexity requirements, and automatically logging out a user after a predetermined time of inactivity.

d}-Hold a cyber-awareness training session

The security risks connected with the usage of corporate data and systems must be made clear to all personnel. It's critical that they understand the many rules, regulations, and procedures that they must follow in order to securely carry out their duties.

e}-Create an incident response plan and put it into action.

An Incident Response Plan is a series of processes that allows you to identify, evaluate, contain, recover from, and respond to a data breach or any other type of cybersecurity incident. You should test your company's plan on a regular basis and make modifications as needed.

Is This an Update to DFARS Compliance? CMMC: Is This an Update to DFARS Compliance?

The Department of Defense has struggled with low FAR and DFARS compliance among its contractors throughout the years. The Department of Defense created the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification to solve this issue while still attempting to improve the security of defence data and networks (CMMC).

CMMC draws on current cybersecurity standards and criteria, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology's SP 800-171. Contractors that have earned CMMC Degrees 1 and 2 are not necessarily compliant with all components of DFARS because there are five levels of cybersecurity maturity.

You can be DFARS-compliant but not have achieved your CMMC at the same time. This is due to the fact that, unlike DFARS, CMMC needs third-party accreditation.

With Linqsgroup assistance, you'll be able to comply with DFARS and Export control requirements swiftly and simply.

Author Info:-

Linqs Group is the creator of Paladin, a firm that focuses on information assurance and is an information security consultant. For the intelligence community, Perry has pioneered research in identifying over-the-horizon security threats. Paladin specialises in conducting cyber risk assessments to assist companies in improving their computer and network security activities.Visit Our Website:- https://www.linqsgroup.com/