A new congressional report recommending a FedRAMP-style framework for commercial data brokers has reignited a long-running debate in Washington: whether federal agencies should be able to buy sensitive personal data on the open market without the same legal scrutiny required for traditional surveillance. Supporters of reform argue that the rapid growth of the data brokerage… Read More
For MSPs supporting defense contractors, federal agencies, and cloud service providers, 2026 marks a turning point when most regulatory bodies expect architecture, compliance, and service delivery to align. This is made even more readily apparent with changes in federal requirements. The DoD’s phased rollout of CMMC and FedRAMP 20x are clear signal that the government… Read More
The move to continuous controls monitoring is quickly becoming the baseline expectation for how security and compliance programs operate, particularly in cloud-first, identity-driven environments. What was once framed as “continuous compliance” or “real-time assurance” has now become a necessity driven by how risk and regulations actually function.
GRC has always been at the forefront of innovation, having to respond to the latest and most creative threats. Artificial intelligence is simply forcing innovation to become faster. Moreso, it’s forcing us to rethink what GRC actually is now and into the next decade. AI-driven GRC is emerging as the next operating paradigm built on… Read More
With the January 2026 release of multiple RFCs tied to the FedRAMP Authorization Act, the program is shifting from incremental process tweaks to structural modernization. This has been on the horizon for a while now, with the announcement of the FedRAMP 20x program. But this string of RFCs signals that the program is finalizing the… Read More
This shift to identity-based security has had major implications for compliance. Frameworks like FedRAMP, CMMC, and NIST 800-series controls all rely on strong identity practices. Yet areas like Identity Assurance remain a consistent challenge. Many organizations assume that if a user can log in with MFA, their identity is secure. In reality, authentication only proves… Read More
The core HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules were written in a very different era, before cloud computing, large-scale data exchange, and ransomware became a systemic risk to healthcare. While there have been updates to address the digital age (namely, HITECH), there are still gaps in HIPAA’s approach to distributed cloud systems. The latest round of… Read More
As regulatory scrutiny is increasing, customers are more demanding, and security failures carry reputational and financial consequences that far outweigh the cost of prevention. In response, Managed Service Providers are redefining their role. Instead of offering compliance as a one-off consulting engagement, they are transforming it into a repeatable, scalable managed service. This is an… Read More
Passwordless authentication is a potential lynchpin for organizations struggling with identity as their security perimeter. While neither FedRAMP nor CMMC explicitly mandates passwordless technologies, both frameworks set requirements and outcomes that passwordless authentication can meet. For organizations operating in regulated environments, especially those handling government data or CUI, passwordless authentication is no longer an emerging… Read More
When U.S. officials began publicly discussing the threat actor known as Salt Typhoon, it was clear this was something beyond mere disorganized attacks. But for compliance leaders, the more important question was how a campaign of this scale could operate for so long within systems that were supposed to be compliant? At the center of… Read More
CISA’s Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs) reflect the federal government’s effort to raise the baseline for basic cybersecurity effectiveness. CPG 2.0 breaks away from the idea of a strict framework, instead establishing a strategic, outcome-driven baseline for cybersecurity performance that cuts across industries, operating environments, and organizational maturity levels. For CISOs, CIOs, and compliance officers,… Read More
CISA’s Industry Engagement Platform (IEP) signals a meaningful shift in how that relationship works. While the platform is not a compliance or procurement system it represents something arguably more useful: a formalized, structured mechanism for continuous engagement between CISA and the private sector. For organizations operating in regulated environments, particularly those subject to FedRAMP, CMMC,… Read More
There isn’t a country-wide privacy law in the U.S., much to the chagrin of states and American businesses that thrive on clarity. While frameworks like GovRAMP exist, they aren’t enforced by the government and serve more as a blueprint than a law. Now, however, state-level privacy regulation has begun to fill the gap. With multiple… Read More
Open source software is a reality of modern computing, and there really isn’t a space where it doesn’t touch at least some aspect of an IT stack. Even the most locked-down software will include libraries and utilities that rose from an open-source project built by well-meaning developers to solve everyday problems. The challenge is that… Read More
Open-source software is the cornerstone of most IT platforms and infrastructure. This reliance extends beyond major applications; most software worldwide relies, in part, on even the smallest OSS library that solves a critical problem. For businesses subject to FedRAMP, CMMC, and other federal jurisdictions, this is a solid way to plan their compliance. As we’re… Read More
Recently, U.S. and allied cybersecurity agencies, including CISA, the NSA, and Canada’s Centre for Cyber Security, issued a series of alerts and analysis reports warning of ongoing malicious activity associated with a sophisticated backdoor malware known as Brickstorm. This malware, attributed to state-sponsored threat actors linked to China, has demonstrated the capability to maintain long-term,… Read More
Federal cybersecurity has long since moved beyond compliance for its own sake. Still, one of the most persistent and dangerous mistakes organizations continue to make is equating compliance with security. This article repeats a common message that we’ve been hammering home for years: that risk reduction, not box-checking, must be the organizing principle of modern… Read More
When the Department of Defense released CMMC FAQs Revision 2.1 in November 2025, the update appeared modest on the surface. Four new questions were added without changing the CMMC model or the underlying regulatory framework in 32 CFR Part 170. For organizations already fatigued by years of CMMC evolution, it would be easy to dismiss… Read More
FedRAMP has long been the backbone of how U.S. federal agencies evaluate and trust cloud services. For more than a decade, it has provided a standardized approach to assessing security controls, granting authorizations, and maintaining ongoing oversight. Yet as cloud architectures evolved, software delivery accelerated, and agencies increasingly relied on modern DevSecOps practices, the original… Read More
2026 is looking to be another challenging year in the evolution of security and compliance. The convergence of AI-driven automation, identity-based attacks, deepfake-enabled social engineering, targeted attacks on critical infrastructure, and quantum-era risk is forcing organizations to rethink their security foundations from the ground up. Attack surfaces are expanding, attack velocity is accelerating beyond human… Read More
Ohio finds itself facing a rapidly escalating wave of cybersecurity threats, ones that no longer resemble the simple phishing emails or brute-force attacks of the past. Today’s threats are more deceptive, more adaptive, and more damaging. Fueled by artificial intelligence, sophisticated social engineering, and the vulnerabilities of legacy infrastructure, these attacks aim to cripple essential… Read More
Web browsers are massive, in many ways becoming a new operating system we use to access data, watch videos, and manage professional services. Following that, browser extensions have quietly become one of the most overlooked risks in enterprise security. And as the recent revelations about the campaign make clear, attackers increasingly understand that the easiest… Read More
For years, FedRAMP has used a traditional authorization model that requires extensive documentation and lengthy review cycles, making it difficult for innovative SaaS providers to serve government customers. While it delivered strong security assurances, it wasn’t built for cloud-native CSPs. FedRAMP 20x changes this trajectory. Designed as a modernization program, 20x shifts compliance toward automation,… Read More
It’s a long-standing truism that biometrics are among the most robust and trustworthy forms of identity verification on the market. The whole premise was that identity is physical, unique, and nearly impossible to replicate. Deepfakes have completely dismantled this assumption. Today, artificial intelligence can fabricate a convincing face, clone a voice from just a few… Read More