“Don’t you drop those gloves, little girl, keep ‘em up.”

“What’d I tell you about tucking those elbows? When you give them a rib, you give them a win. I KNOW you’re not dropping those gloves.”

Boxing sessions with my grandfather always ended with Fudgesicles and Otis Redding. He was a mountain of a man, who knew the balance between protecting yourself and as Otis said, when you’ve “got to, got to, try a little tenderness.” He taught me that boxing was similar to life. That people will punch you square in your face if you let them, but you have to protect the core of who you are or else the fight is over.

I doubt he ever believed I’d be comparing this lesson to the importance of cybersecurity and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirements. Shockingly, estimates show that close to 600 billion dollars are lost each year to cybercrime. As a small business in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), if that isn’t a punch in the face, I don’t know what is.

When CMMC was introduced, we recognized that good cyber hygiene was at the core of competing in this space. Tucking our elbows became a way of life at JetCo Federal, and we applied this concept not only to CMMC and its five levels, but also in the decision for certifications such as HAZMAT, ISO 27001, and generally any compliance that adds power to our jab-jab-cross.

*Hey Google, play Hard to Handle by Otis Redding*

Complex doesn’t put us up against the ropes. Doing the right thing and staying in the fight is what matters. Our approach to CMMC and general compliance is that it’s our ribs. Losing critical information, CUI, intellectual property, etc. can drag us out of the ring with a hard enough hit.

We’ve been working with experts since NIST 800-171 and are positioned to be quite the competitor in 2021. We continue to keep our gloves up and our elbows tucked, ready for whatever fight is to come.