Exeter startup helps defense contractors with cybersecurity compliance
Summary
It will be a requirement for more than 500,000 companies in Americas Defense Industrial Base, including those in New Hampshire, such as BAE Systems.A listing of defense contractors show 1,839 in New Hampshire whose contracts between 2000 and 2020 were worth a total of $27.26 billion.What the government realized is that it is really important that the entire supply chain is secure, not just the Raytheons, Northrops, Grummans, etc., but the entire supply chain because these FCI and CUI are passed down the supply chain from prime contractors to subcontractors, he said.So the CMMC requirement will ultimately apply not only to defense contractor giants like Lockheed Martin., but also to the very small subcontractor who may make a specialized machined shop-sourced part for, say, the Lockheed Martin produced F-22 Raptor fighter jet.The large contractors might have their own internal cybersecurity team with the time and resources to meet the CMMC standards.The hardest part is for the small machine shop that, for the first time, now needs to prove to the government, effectively to the DoD, that they are compliant, but they dont really know where to begin, McClintock said.In most cases, according to McClintock, defense contractors and subcontractors will need to hire outside consultants to help them through the complexities of CMMC certification.GovSky can help make that process a lot cheaper and easier. It does not supply the CMMC consultants that a company might hire.It puts into one platform what might otherwise exist in separate and disparate spreadsheets and logs kept by a defense contractor. The platform puts all the components of compliance implementation tracking, project management, evidence collection, document generation, and more all in one place.Think of GovSky as a power tool in the hands of an expert, McClintock said. At Level 3, a system is certified to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of CUI from advanced persistent threats.GovSky publicly launched its compliance platform on June 12, saying in a statement that successfully passing an audit is challenging, expensive and time-consuming, taking six to 18 months to implement and costing over $200,000 for the typical small business. GovSkys mission is to reduce this burden so these businesses can efficiently earn compliance and stay focused on their critical role in defense of our nation, it said.McClintock, who has a background in company building as a cybersecurity investor, partnered with Tristan Fisher as his co-founder and chief technology officer.GovSky has raised $2.5 million in funding to date, with backing from Peterson Ventures, Revolutions Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, SaaS Ventures, Sequoia and others.McClintock said he and Fisher are hiring as they settle into an office in Exeter.Theres just nothing that can replace that face to face.