As a Department of Defense (DOD) contractor, you provide our nation’s warfighters with the best equipment and technology, helping them succeed in their mission and come home to their families.
To continue fulfilling this important goal, it’s essential to prioritize cybersecurity. The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is a critical step in this process, and compliance will soon be mandatory. CMMC assessments (figure 1) start in Q1 2025, and contract inclusions begin in Q3 2025. The process is expected to take 2.5 years on average, so if you haven’t started yet, you are risking your regulatory compliance, business reputation, and defense contracts.
Figure 1: DOD CMMC Levels
Navigating this process can be overwhelming, but there are tools and software out there to help make your journey to CMMC certification faster, easier, and more efficient—while enhancing your organization’s overall cybersecurity posture. Here are five game-changing tools and solutions, along with how each map to the fourteen CMMC 2.0 domains. If you don’t already have these tools and are looking to be CMMC certified, consider adding them to your arsenal.
A state-of-the-art breach and attack simulation (BAS) platform, like Keysight Threat Simulator, helps you meet 15 different CMMC requirements, including mimicking cyberattacks on your network — revealing potential vulnerabilities and assessing the impact of different security breaches. Your team can prioritize its efforts and bolster system defenses using comprehensive reports that highlight critical areas needing immediate attention. Additionally, Threat Simulator lets you conduct regular assessments, making it easy to proactively monitor your security posture. For CMMC Level 2 — which requires configuration management, incident response, and security assessment — Threat Simulator covers these effectively. Level 3 certification demands additional security practices like risk assessment and system and communications protection practices. Threat Simulator facilitates these advanced requirements by continuously testing and improving your security posture, ensuring compliance and robust protection against cyberthreats.
2. Network Visibility Solutions
Defense contractors rely on network traffic monitoring devices like Keysight network packet brokers (NBPs) with physical and virtual taps to secure their networks. These devices are an enabling technology, enhancing visibility by feeding packet data to inspection tools that rely on this data to function effectively. Together, they help you meet ten required practices across all certification levels, providing robust boundary protection to control the flow of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and managing and monitoring sensitive data.
With system auditing capabilities that leverage data from physical taps, as well as insights from virtualized environments, these devices ensure thorough communications tracking and accountability. In terms of incident response, NPBs support incident handling, security operations centers, and cyber incident response teams by monitoring traffic in real time for signs of compromise or attack. Security control monitoring becomes more efficient as these devices continuously assess the security posture of the network. The insights enable incident response teams to promptly identify threats. From system auditing and incident response to threat hunting and security control monitoring, Keysight NPBs with taps are key tools to aid your CMMC certification.
3. Cybersecurity Training Platform
A comprehensive cybersecurity training platform can significantly aid CMMC certification, particularly at Levels 2 and 3. Keysight Cyber Range helps organizations meet six CMMC requirements by providing role-based training, advanced threat awareness, and practical training exercises. These training modules ensure that all team members, from entry-level to advanced, are well-versed in the latest cyber threats and response strategies. By simulating realistic cyberthreat scenarios, the platform allows teams to practice and refine their incident handling and incident response testing skills in a controlled environment. This hands-on experience is crucial for building confidence and competence in managing real-world incidents.
Additionally, Cyber Range supports the development and maintenance of security operations center (SOC) procedures. It provides specialized training on threat detection, incident analysis, and response coordination, ensuring that SOC teams are prepared to handle complex security challenges. This holistic approach to training not only simplifies and speeds up the certification process but also significantly strengthens your organization’s overall cybersecurity posture. By integrating continuous learning and practical exercises, Cyber Range ensures that your team is always ready to respond to emerging threats, thereby enhancing your compliance with CMMC requirements.
4. Network performance and security testing solutions
Network performance and security testing solutions, such as Keysight CyPerf and Keysight BreakingPoint, are crucial in meeting CMMC domains for all levels. This process requires analyzing the security impact of changes before implementing them in the configuration management domain. These two solutions ensure that any changes are thoroughly analyzed for their security impact before implementation, maintaining powerful configuration management. Along with testing the robustness of authentication mechanisms and reviewing access control processes, these solutions ensure that only authorized individuals have access to CUI. This is essential for enabling personnel to perform their tasks while preventing unauthorized access.
By simulating attacks and monitoring responses in a pre-deployment environment, CyPerf and BreakingPoint validate the effectiveness of security controls, enhance threat awareness, and protect systems and communications from techniques of misdirection and deception. This comprehensive approach ensures that your organization meets these five CMMC requirements and maintains a strong security posture.
5. IoT security testing platform
CMMC mandates strong practices in vulnerability management, incident response, and network segmentation for the risk assessment domain, and a powerful tool like Keysight IoT Security Assessment fits the bill. IoT security testing platforms secure a range of critical devices found in DOD organizations. These include operational technology and Industrial IoT systems such as thermostats, industrial controllers, robot factory arms, security cameras, and badge scanners. IoT Security Assessment ensures that such devices comply with the standards as well as generating detailed reports and logs that serve as evidence of compliance. This documentation is crucial during the certification audit process.
Additionally, IoT Security Assessment enhances vulnerability management, validates resiliency, generates SBOMs and correlates them with CVEs, and detects flaws such as weak passwords. These capabilities provide a comprehensive approach to securing IoT devices and meeting CMMC standards.
Incorporating these five key solutions into your security portfolio now will give you time to onboard them effectively and achieve CMMC certification well before the anticipated 2026 deadline. These powerful tools will also deliver significant benefits including:
- Enhanced security posture
- Faster certification process
- Easier compliance management
- Improved accuracy and consistency
- Efficient resource use
- Better preparedness for audits
Streamline your path to CMMC certification, protect sensitive defense information, and give your organization a significant competitive advantage. Add these powerful tools to your IT security suite today by contacting the security experts at Keysight.