CMMC Fraud in scrabble letters

As a life-long public servant, nothing angers me more than swarmy consultants trying to make a quick buck as we try to harden our nation’s cybersecurity stance.

Our country fights a digital war every day; our tireless manufacturers are attacked every day, and at every hour. The Defense Industrial Base sits on the frontline of a battlefield that knows no borders.

We would not leave a wounded soldier behind. While this metaphor does not fully represent the sacrifices made by our veterans, we in the cybersecurity community have a similar obligation to support small businesses who are relentlessly injured by foreign actors, which allows for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) exfiltration.

Given this, seeing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accredidation Board release a statement of warning for falisified trainings upsets me.

At a Town Hall, the CMMC-AB released a statement, which reads:

The CMMC Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB) is alerting all current and prospective members of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Ecosystem about companies and organizations misrepresenting their ability to train individuals in preparation for the CMMC assessor and CMMC instructor certification exams developed by the CMMC-AB in support of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) CMMC initiative

No Registered Professional, Registered Professional Organzation, Licensed Training Provider, or Licensed Publishing Partner can enroll in any CMMC training that will lead to the ability to take a certification class

This does not mean you should delay your CMMC training. In fact, many manufacturing companies, software providers, and Managed Service Providers need to get started in NIST-SP-800-171 compliance today.

You have no idea how much work and policy writing must occur.

Join the CMMC Essentials Class at Southern Connecticut State University

While our classes do not lead to certification and the CMMC-AB has not certified our classes everyone in the CMMC Ecosystem should enroll in the classes SCSU offers with CyberDI, an LTP and LPP.

We run a five week boot camp, one of which is starting on July 20th. You can choose the 8 hour pathway, or choose the full 20 hour community over the five weeks.

The class costs $895, which includes the ability to join ALL classes taught in that academic year. PLUS if you decide to enroll in our CCP classes you can apply the $895 to the cost of tuition.

You would never buy a house without an inspection, or a car without a test drive. So why do that with CMMC curriculum? Check us out and see if you want CyberDI as a long term training partner.

Goals of the CMMC Essential Classes

As an Educational Pychologist, I know what it takes to create valid and reliable educational experiences. We 100% develop and test curriculum and lesson plans that CyberDI will offer in our CCP classes.

So we work with Leighton Johnson, Paul Netopski, and Vincent Scott to run content validity studies as we pilot the items. Dr. Lauren Tucker then reviews the material to ensure 508/ADA compliance, but more importantly apply a lens of Universal Design for Learning.

  • CMMC Essentials One: The Wireframe- create a content frame that increases student learning by reducing cognitive load caused by navigation issues
  • CMMC Essestials Two: Alpha- get all the learner facing materials validated and ready
  • CMMC Essentials Three: Beta-get all the teacher facing materials validated and ready

Yet most people in the community do not complete our assignments. They bring a personal project and I align their subjectives to our learning objectives.

What to People Build in Class?

So many OSCs and MSPs take our class to start working on SSPs or business plans.

  • Penn State University- Joined our class to update their SSP for a CUI policy
  • NKT Photonics-Develop the Policies for a CUI Enclave
  • Cocoon Data’s SafeShare-Develop a Customer Inheritence Matrix
  • SMB Networks-Develop a plan as MSP to enter the 7012 manufacturing space
  • Data Intelligence Technology-Develop a Customer Inheritence Matrix for their CMMC assessment app
  • Net Synergy-Create a Plan to support existing customers with a 7012 clause
  • Alan Knapp Consulting-ERP and CMMC Compliance
  • 123 CMMC-Dana Mantilla’s CMMC podcast series

You can join our class as an RP and an RPO to cement your place in the CMMC ecosystem.

Who Teaches the Classes?

CyberDI and SCSU have the best cadre of instructors and curriculum designers. Many of them stop in to lead classes. Our team includes:

  • Vincent Scott
  • Leighton Johnson
  • Jeff Baldwin
  • Paul Netopski
  • Margeret Glover Tanner
  • Brian Rogalaski
  • Alex Sharpe
  • Jacob Horne
  • Israel Campbell
  • Glenn Axelrod
  • Rodney Mcleod

Want to learn more? Find me on the interwebz (jgmac1106 everywhere) or check out https://www.southernct.edu/cmmc.