The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-3 (2019) is “applicable to all federal agencies that use cryptographic-based security systems… and shall be used in designing and implementing cryptographic modules that federal departments and agencies operate or are operated for them under contract.” In other words, any organization that stores, processes, or transmits certain government information must do so in a way that conforms to the FIPS standard.

With the release of CMMC 2.0, and the significant changes that come with it, we have to update our cost expectations. This post covers whether CMMC is appropriate for your business, provides a cost breakdown of the 3 major effort areas, offers a rough estimate of the costs of CMMC compliance, and answers the question of whether an expert can save you time and resources.