Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

One of the most critical elements of modern information security is encryption. Encryption is a complex field based solely on the arms race between people seeking secure ways to encode and encrypt data at rest and in transit and those seeking to break that encryption. Encryption is extremely commonplace. Most websites you visit use SSL, the Secure Socket Layer, which uses encryption to secure data traveling between your device and the servers hosting the website.

Here at Ignyte, we talk a lot about various overarching information security frameworks, like FedRAMP, CMMC, and ISO 27001. Within these overall frameworks exist a range of smaller and narrower standards, including COMSEC. If you’ve seen COMSEC as a term, you may be passingly familiar with what it is, but if you need to know the details, it’s surprisingly muddy to identify with specificity. So, we decided to talk about it.

As much as some people dislike it, the world is interconnected, and to operate a business successfully, you will have to use the products or services produced by other businesses. Under normal circumstances, this is fine. However, when you’re a contractor looking to work with a department of the federal government, you have to adhere to higher standards.

If you’re part of the defense industrial base and you’re seeking CMMC certification, there’s a very good chance you’re aiming for Level 2. Level 1 is mostly meant for businesses with a focus on federal contract information but not CUI, while Level 3 is meant for businesses handling the most sensitive kinds of CUI; since most businesses fall somewhere in the middle, Level 2 is the most common.