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.
If you sell connected hardware to a federal agency — cameras, sensors, badge readers, building controls, medical devices, fleet telematics — the document that shapes what agencies will demand of your product is open for comment for one more week.
Read more →Most contractors track the CUI standard through the DFARS. That is not the only place it lives. On the civilian side, one agency has already pointed its contractor CUI requirements at Revision 3 — and the defense timetable had nothing to do with it.
Read more →Most cyber-fraud settlements involve the Pentagon, NIST SP 800-171, and SPRS scores. This one involved the GSA, a civilian internet service, and a set of controls most defense contractors have never heard of — and it shows the enforcement risk reaches well beyond the defense industrial base.
Read more →Penn State agreed to pay $1.25 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations across fifteen DoD and NASA contracts — but the core theory was not a false cybersecurity score. It was allegedly false POA&M milestone dates: promising when gaps would be fixed and then not doing the work. Here is why an unworked plan of action, and an unvetted cloud, are each independent FCA exposure.
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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