A defense-industry contractor needed to rapidly achieve CMMC Level 2 to secure and maintain government contracts. Trility provided critical advisory and compliance expertise, validating the necessary 110 controls, maturing documentation, and establishing a continuous monitoring program, resulting in a successful self-attestation in just eight months.
To retain and win vital contracts within the defense industrial base, the client was required to achieve Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Level 2 compliance. Their internal efforts lacked the specialized compliance expertise and structure to complete the self-attestation within the aggressive timeline mandated by the new federal requirements. Without the certification, the client faced significant business risk, including the potential loss of lucrative government work.
Key technical challenges included:
A siloed organizational structure where teams needed clear, shared ownership for compliance responsibilities, hindering evidence gathering.
Low-level, detailed technical procedures were needed, and documentation was heavily Windows-centric despite a multi-tenanted environment, necessitating substantial rework.
The absence of a mature Continuous Monitoring program and a sufficient vulnerability management process – essential for maintaining compliance over time and achieving automation.
Uncertainty regarding the secure, long-term storage and archival of audit evidence.
Trility deployed an expert advisor to act as a crucial validation layer, bridging the gap between the client's technical teams and the government's stringent CMMC requirements.
Expert Validation: Provided deep knowledge of the CMMC controls, ensuring technical evidence submitted by the engineering team met government criteria.
Documentation Maturation: Revised existing policies and procedures.
Internal Audit & Evidence Strategy: Performed internal audit functions and established a clear document defining acceptable evidence criteria and a process for evidence gathering.
Continuous Monitoring Program: Advised on and began building a future-proof Continuous Monitoring program, including defined, testable periodicity requirements to sustain compliance post-attestation.
Organizational Enablement: Helped the client's teams understand and adopt new processes, overcoming an "us vs. them" compliance mentality to foster organizational change.
Trility's focused advisory engagement delivered significant and quantifiable outcomes for the client:
Accelerated Compliance & Delivery: Successful completion of the CMMC Level 2 self-attestation with a score of 110/110 in eight months, a substantial reduction from the industry standard of 12 to 18 months, enabling them to bid on and secure key government contracts sooner.
Verifiable Compliance: Self-attestation was completed with zero critical or high vulnerabilities identified, reducing the client's overall risk profile and ensuring they are prepared for a potential government audit at any time.
Increased Capabilities: Ensured the client's long-term success by establishing the capability to perform compliance efforts repeatedly. This included defining clear, testable, and repeatable methods for compliance checks and moving them towards a sustainable continuous monitoring posture.
Strategic Direction: Received a roadmap for maturing compliance operations, including next steps in vulnerability management and automation to ensure this effort serves as a foundation for broader security maturity.
