Coalfire Federal, a leading cybersecurity services provider to the federal government and Defense Industrial Base (DIB), today announced the appointment of Stuart Itkin to the position of Vice President CMMC and FedRAMP Assurance.
The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) framework was created to address the ongoing theft and unauthorized access to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) by foreign adversaries through the enforcement of good cyber hygiene and best practices. The DoD announced the first contracts with CMMC requirements in December, which will affect 1,500 primes and subcontractors in 2021. In time, all 300,000+ organizations within the DoD’s supply chain will need to certify at the CMMC Maturity Level defined in their governing contract.
Read More: Will enterprises be able to mitigate the looming Shadow IT 2.0…
“CMMC addresses a national security imperative by requiring and enforcing organizations across the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to achieve and maintain a sufficient level of cyber maturity,” said Itkin. “CMMC requirements are exacting and many DIB companies will be challenged. I see Coalfire Federal as ideally positioned to help DIB companies succeed, and to support the CMMC Accreditation Body and the DoD in the successful rollout of CMMC. The mission is too important to not succeed, and I look forward to my new role.”
Itkin was previously Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Exostar, a Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, and Rolls Royce formed joint venture company, that developed secure collaboration and supply chain solutions for the Aerospace and Defense industry and the DIB. Stuart was responsible for Exostar’s supply chain compliance and risk management solutions and for establishing its CMMC practice area. Prior to Exostar, Stuart served in executive roles with cybersecurity companies PivotPoint Risk Analytics, SAIFE, and ThreatTrack Security, as lead mentor at the Virginia State Government funded MACH37 cybersecurity product accelerator, and as an advisor and board member to several early and growth stage cybersecurity companies. Stuart was originally recruited to the Washington DC area by the Corporate Executive Board, now a subsidiary of Gartner, where he served as Global Chief Marketing Officer. Stuart earned a BA and an MA and is an ABD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“CMMC is an important growth area for Coalfire Federal consistent with our commitment to provide cybersecurity services that enable and protect the mission of the DoD and its supply chain,” said Coalfire Federal President Bill Malone. “Just as we supported the roll-out of FedRAMP and became a leading provider of FedRAMP advisory and assessment services, we look forward under Stuart’s leadership to playing a similar role and achieving similar success for CMMC.”
Coalfire Federal was one of the first named CMMC Third Party Assessment Organizations (C3PAO) authorized to conduct CMMC certification assessments and is a CMMC Registered Practitioner Organization (RPO) capable of providing CMMC advisory services to DIB companies seeking assistance as they prepare for an official CMMC audit. The Coalfire Federal team has participated as volunteers in the CMMC-AB Working Groups responsible for creating the assessment criteria and methodologies to support the CMMC framework. Coalfire Federal employees were selected to participate in the Provisional Assessor training program and have successfully completed their training and earned their Provisional Assessor credentials.
