Topic: Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) - The Way Forward
Description: On January 31, the Pentagon issued the final standards under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). The standard will apply to any company that does business with the Department of Defense (DoD), from weapons contractors protecting highly classified intellectual property to landscaping firms that service DoD installations. CMMC will apply to subcontractors as well as primes.
The official release of the standard means contractors will now need to pay a CMMC-certified assessor to physically inspect their operations to ensure compliance with one of the five levels. In the future, once CMMC begins appearing in RFIs and actual solicitations, if a contractor doesn’t meet the contract’s requisite level under the framework, the contractor will not be allowed to bid for the work.
John Nell will review this process and will provide an inside perspective on the upcoming market demand for assessors, the fundamentals of the model, the financial impact on organizations that do or will do business with the DoD, and the need to have these organizations prepare while understanding the consequences of not being prepared for their assessment.
Speaker:
John D. Nell, President at NELL 360 Solutions
Born and raised in Fort Atkinson Wisconsin, John Nell received his commission through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship program at the University of Wisconsin in 1988.
John spent the next 26 years in the Navy with combat tours in Desert Storm (1991), Iraqi Freedom (2003) and Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (2009-2010). John’s highlighted tours included a frigate (USS UNDERWOOD), the Pentagon, an aircraft carrier (USS NIMITZ), Navy Recruiting, and the responsibility for manning of the Naval Air Forces. He received a Bronze Star for serving as the Senior Advisor to the Afghanistan Minister of Interior.
In 2014, John retired from the Navy and entered the civilian life as a consultant to the Department of Defense (DoD) working with NAVWAR (formally SPAWAR), the Navy and the Air Force. Companies he worked for are Booz Allen Hamilton (Associate), Omni2Max (Executive Vice President) and Trabus Technologies (Business Development and Human Resources).
More recently, John founded NELL 360 Solutions, a consulting services firm that advises companies how to effectively do business with the government, particularly the Department of Defense (DoD). Specifically, NELL 360 Solutions provides consulting in business development, talent acquisition, project management and cybersecurity risk management, particularly compliance with the DoD’s NIST SP-800-171, and the latest with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC).
Starting in 2019, John is a member of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Cyber Division Cyber Legal Policy Committee that works closely with DoD’s CMMC team in drafting the current CMMC; this included meetings with top DoD officials in Washington DC periodically in the last year.