CMMC-AB Elects Jeff Dalton as Next Board Chairman

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body has selected its current vice chairman, Jeff Dalton, to lead its board of directors.

As chairman, Jeff Dalton will provide broader leadership to the organization and will be in charge of implementing the Department of Defense’s effort to raise the cybersecurity standard in the defense industrial base.

Karlton Johnson, the incumbent chairman, told the board of directors in October that he did not wish to serve for a second consecutive term, CMMC-AB said Monday.

The board elected Paul Michaels to take over the vice chair role. Michaels previously served as chair of the Ethics and Compliance Committee and as acting government security officer.

Dalton said that his tenure will be focused on two goals. The first is to ensure that all stakeholders understand the benefits of DOD’s new “CMMC 2.0” policy.

CMMC 2.0 restructured the program’s system for maturity levels by focusing on the most critical requirements and leaning on widely accepted standards, including one developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The DOD recently published guides for levels one and two of the new CMMC system, FedScoop reported Tuesday. The first level serves as a self-assessment guide that resembles NIST’s Special Publication 800-171A framework. The level two guide contains more security controls and is targeted at certified third-party assessors accredited by CMMC-AB.

Dalton said that his second goal is to ensure that CMMC-AB’s CEO, Matthew Travis, has all the resources and support he needs to execute the organization’s mission.