The full compliance process for CMMC, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, culminates in an audit that validates an organization’s cybersecurity posture and its implementation of the security controls that apply to it. Throughout this process, there is a gatekeeper who performs your audit. You may have heard of them referred to as a CMMC Auditor or a CMMC Assessor. With these two terms in play, you may be wondering what the difference is between them.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, version 2.0, is finally in effect, which means thousands of businesses that have roles in the Department of Defense supply line need to do the work to comply and pass their audits to receive certification. It’s inevitable that many of these businesses will fail their initial audits. The standards are high, the margin of error is narrow, and the timeline is tight.

The final step to achieving ISO 27001 certification is passing a final audit of your ISMS. During this process, you will work with an external, third-party auditor to perform a thorough audit of your systems, to evaluate compliance with the guidelines in ISO 27001. The question is, what will that auditor be doing? Do you hand them paperwork and the keys to the building and let them do their thing, or are they more interactive? What can you expect when working with your auditor?

When you’re looking into government cybersecurity certifications, like FedRAMP and CMMC, you’re going to see two acronyms everywhere you turn. These two acronyms are almost identical: 3PAO and C3PAO. With just one letter dividing them, what’s the difference?

Cybersecurity is a complex business, and there are numerous standards and frameworks meant to help businesses achieve some level of security and protection in a hostile world. Among those programs is CMMC, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. With a new final rule in the finishing stages, it’s critical to know the details if it’s important to your business. CMMC is an initiative and a framework developed and maintained by the United States Department of Defense.

In the process of securing a business and achieving a full certification with ISO 27001, there are many different tasks that need to be accomplished, and many different people who need to be working towards achieving those tasks. In fact, a key part of a successful certification and a passing audit is accountability. Different people will need to take on different roles and responsibilities, some of which are for the purposes of the audit, and others for ongoing security.

The full process for achieving ISO 27001 compliance is lengthy, expensive, and difficult. While you can take many steps to make it easier, faster, or cheaper, there’s only so much you can sidestep the ground-level legwork that needs to be done to succeed. Fortunately, we can help you smooth out the process. A few weeks ago, we published a checklist for the full process to achieve ISO 27001 certification.

Two years ago, The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published a long-awaited update to their primary cybersecurity framework, ISO 27001. The previous version, ISO 27001:2013, was nearly a decade old and in need of a refresh. The new version, ISO 27001:2022, is currently the version in effect. As part of the roll-out of ISO 27001:2022, companies were given instructions on how to transition to the new version from the 2013 version.

ISO 27001 is one of the most important security frameworks in the world. Any business that wants to operate internationally, especially if they have contracts with certified brands or international governments, or they want to open the door to those contracts, will need to achieve ISO 27001 certification. There’s just one problem: it can take a long time to achieve. How long?

Achieving ISO 27001 compliance and certification will open countless doors with governmental, industrial, and other business relationships. As an internationally-recognized and trusted security framework, it’s taken quite seriously. That means you have to put your all into achieving certification if you hope to pass the auditing process. At Ignyte, we can help.