Plain-language guidance on the cybersecurity requirements that attach to federal contracts — FAR 52.204-21, DFARS 252.204-7012, CMMC, CUI, NIST SP 800-171, FedRAMP, incident reporting, and the clauses that turn cybersecurity into procurement risk.
Before any FAR or DFARS clause applies, federal and state law already requires your business to secure data and report breaches — the FTC Act, all-50-state breach laws, and rules like GLBA and HIPAA. The contractor requirements build on top of that legal baseline. Make sure you meet it first.
With CMMC Phase 2 four months out, contractors are booking C3PAO assessments — but most haven't correctly drawn the boundary the assessor will actually test.
Read more →The Government Accountability Office found DoD's CMMC rollout plan strong on six of seven strategic elements but incomplete on one: it has not documented how it will handle key external risks — chief among them the possibility that the private sector won't have enough certified C3PAO assessors to meet demand. With CMMC Phase 2 starting November 10, 2026, that unmanaged assessor-capacity gap is a direct scheduling risk for defense contractors. (GAO-26-107955; DoD concurred with GAO's recommendation.)
Read more →In InnoVet Technologies, LLC (GAO, June 16, 2026), NASA eliminated a small business from the SEWP VI competition — a 10-year GWAC that ultimately produced 2,115 awards — not because its security was weak, but because its proposals omitted a required narrative describing the offeror's own cybersecurity supply chain risk management. GAO denied the protest. The lesson for contractors: on many federal procurements, the cybersecurity write-up is a pass/fail gate for award eligibility, and a checklist attestation is not a substitute for the narrative the solicitation asks for.
Read more →FedRAMP's Consolidated Rules for 2026 launched June 25, 2026, replacing the Low/Moderate/High impact-level framing with a Class A/B/C/D structure and setting hard pipeline and Rev5 sunset dates. Here is what changed since our June preview and what to calendar now.
Read more →GovConCyber is a free legal reference — not a law firm. We cover the federal cybersecurity rules that apply to government contractors: what they require, who they apply to, and what you need to do. Start here if you're new to the site.
Answer a few questions about your contract type and data to get a plain-language summary of your obligations.
Get started →Start with the fundamentals: what the key frameworks are, why they exist, and how they affect your contracts.
Read the basics →Plain-language definitions for CUI, CMMC, DFARS, FedRAMP, and many other key terms.
Browse the glossary →Original, source-anchored analysis on the harder questions — where requirements, contracts, data-handling, and enforcement intersect.
The obligations that reach contractors outside the CMMC conversation — the FAR baseline, civilian-agency clauses, cloud, incident reporting, and enforcement.
How to identify, mark, handle, and flow down the categories of information federal contracts protect — CUI and beyond.
FAR, DFARS, frameworks, and agency-specific rules
State-level cyber laws affecting government contractors
Sector-specific obligations: defense, healthcare, finance, and more
Requirement triage, roadmaps, educational self-checks, and reference aids for planning compliance work.
Original analysis — beyond CMMC, protected information, maps and trackers
Actions, penalties, and False Claims Act case law
Cybersecurity 101 and a plain-language glossary
GovConCyber is a free reference first. When you need that analysis applied — explained to a room, or mapped to your actual contracts — these are the ways to go further.
Plain-language sessions on CMMC, CUI, and the requirements beyond CMMC — for conferences, bar associations, APEX Accelerator programs, and internal briefings.
Explore speaking topics →The Compliance Roadmap Assessment™ — a structured readiness review that maps which requirements apply to your contracts and what to prioritize. Not a CMMC assessment or legal advice.
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