All three concepts are defined in the CMMC rule, and represent expansions and clarifications of short entries in NIST 800-171. They have not been discussed much in the professional public dialogue, and I suspect that this is because they clearly conflict with the, “Bring the Hammer! No Mercy!” mentality that underlies the philosophical direction of these discussions of late. Although there is certainly legitimate cause for angst around implementation, swinging the pendulum

Many companies in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) are working to update their SPRS score . Traditionally, this has been a simple exercise: conduct a self-assessment, calculate the score, upload it to SPRS, and move on. For organizations preparing for CMMC compliance, however, the process looks different. SPRS Scoring as an Executive Metric Most CMMC-bound organizations now use their SPRS score as a progress indicator, not a one-time submission. The pattern often looks like

🧪 The Experiment Begins It started as a controlled late-night test of CrewAI and LangChain — a proof-of-concept for how autonomous AI agents could assist in applied research and compliance automation. Each agent was powered by a fine-tuned LLM, tailored for cybersecurity engineering. Each had explicit permission controls, sandboxed within a development container. The agents could think, plan, and execute tasks — but only within the rules I set. At least, that was the idea

A long-time requirement for any auditable process or standard has been documentation. It makes you wonder if early cave paintings quickly...

In order to answer this question, let’s examine the regulatory security requirements that may drive the need for CUI banners. First, we...

In practice, SPA/CSP/ESP split important hairs and are often confused. Each label has crucially specific connotations for CMMC assessments.