Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

One of the biggest decisions you need to make when you’re planning a CMMC implementation is which strategy you’re going to use. Your options are enterprise-wide security or an enclave strategy. Now, we’ve talked about these two options before. Rather than a general guide, though, today we want to look at the factor most likely to drive your decision: costs.

CMMC is one of the most modern cybersecurity frameworks out there, and while it’s limited to just the Department of Defense contractor chain, it’s still very important to know about it if you’re part of that ecosystem. After all, over 300,000 organizations are part of the defense ecosystem and DIB. The point of CMMC is simple: securing controlled unclassified information and federal contract information from top to bottom in the defense supply chain. The details are not so simple.

PCI DSS compliance is not something you can be flippant about. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a high bar, and it’s one that is effectively mandatory for any business that wants to accept credit card payments, no matter how little engagement with the systems you have. Any security standard is only as good as its enforcement. PCI strictly enforces its standards because it’s a core foundation of the trust people have in credit cards.

With so many different security frameworks and standards that apply to different industries and businesses, it can be difficult to even know where to begin. Which ones do you need to use, at what levels, and when? Two frameworks in particular are closely related and important for many businesses, and thus are the cause of a lot of confusion. We wanted to address that confusion today. Those two are PCI DSS and SOC 2.

While we talk a lot about governmental cybersecurity here on the Ignyte blog, programs like FedRAMP and CMMC are not the most common kind of security you’re likely to encounter. That honor goes to PCI DSS. PCI DSS is a security framework we all engage with on a near-daily basis. It’s the security framework used around the world to secure payment card information, and it’s extremely important for trust, safety, and the security of customer information.