In sports, its often said the best offense is a great defense. As an IT consultant based out of Worcester, Mass., Centrend applies that philosophy to the cyber security it employs for its clients. In an effort to better serve all their clients, particularly those clients with U.S. Department of Defense contracts, Centrend recently became a Registered Provider Organization and is able to assist companies in attaining Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC).
“The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) established certain criteria for cyber security that its contractors must meet by 2026. With the CMMC, we can audit the cyber security for those contractors to ascertain whether or not they meet the CMMC requirements and at what level,” said Centrend Owner Paul LaFlamme. “We assist the organization in creating a System Security Plan (SSP) that addresses the more than 110 points of the security standard. We analyze the document work with the company to prioritize a Plan of Action & Mitigation (POAM).”
To attain its certification, Centrend completed a program that covered a number of topics critical to cyber security. Those included: physical workstation security; email encryption; password complexity; training with confidential unclassified information (CUI); monitoring for and reporting attempts to compromise security; and much more.
“Where this becomes critically important is that there are many vendors who serve companies that have DOD contracts,” said LaFlamme. “Those vendors must also meet the CMMC requirements by 2026.”
For complete information on the CMMC program, visit https://cmmcab.org/
With offices in both Worcester and Sturbridge, Massachusetts, Centrend provides on-site Information Technology (IT) managed services and consulting to business customers throughout New England. Those customers include companies in the manufacturing, real estate, finance, insurance, legal, non-profit, construction and hospitality industries.
In addition to its medium- and small-business customers, Centrend has a home consumer division, Whiz Kid Support. Material for future podcasts will also include the issues impacting many remote workers and home-based businesses.
For more information on Centrend, visit www.centrend.com.