CMMC-AB Designates Elliott Davis as Candidate Assessor

Elliott Davis, an accounting firm based in South Carolina, has been selected as a candidate certified third-party assessor organization under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program. 

CMMC is the Department of Defense’s new unified standard for implementing cybersecurity across the defense industrial base.

Once the program has been fully implemented, defense contractors will be required to mature their cybersecurity enough to protect controlled unclassified information, federal contract information and other sensitive data, Elliot Davis said.

“It is a complex process that becomes more stringent based on the level your business ranks as a DoD contractor. Our cybersecurity team has deep expertise advising clients that contract with the DoD,” said Lizzie Tinker, cybersecurity manager at Elliott Davis. 

C3PAOs are authorized to conduct CMMC assessments and recommend companies for certification by the CMMC Accreditation Body. 

Elliot Davis said it can support companies with overall readiness, maturity through CMMC levels, gap analysis, control selection, control implementation, system security plan development and plan of action and milestones development.

The CMMC-AB began accepting applications from organizations vying to be C3PAOs in June 2020, but no organization has yet been officially authorized. 

Commercial assessments are scheduled to go live within the first half of 2021, according to the CMMC-AB’s timeline.

CMMC-AB Chairman Karlton Johnson will deliver a keynote address at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2021 CMMC Forum on June 16. 

He will share his perspective on the program’s rollout, the CMMC-AB’s top priorities and how industry feedback can improve the effort.