On May 13, Defense Unicorns announced it has earned final CMMC Level 2 certification, with zero Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms). This milestone authorizes the company to manage Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) under 32 CFR and prepares it for forthcoming 48 CFR enforcement. More significantly, it demonstrates Defense Unicorns’ commitment to protecting the nation by securing mission-critical data and ensuring secure operations across all mission environments.
“Achieving our certification with modern tools and a good unicorn experience is massive and puts us at the forefront of defense companies,” said Jeff McCoy, CTO of Defense Unicorns. “There have only been about 130 CMMC assessments across the DIB this year, and they have a 50 percent pass rate. The DoD estimates there are 76,000 companies that need to attain CMMC, and many 3PAOs are booked for a year. Getting certified today isn’t just practical, it’s essential for mission success.”
CMMC Level 2 is poised to become the baseline for thousands of defense contractors handling sensitive data. With certification capacity constrained and enforcement deadlines fast approaching, Defense Unicorns’ early achievement underscores a mission-first ethos—embedding robust cybersecurity now so critical software can deploy without delay when warfighters need it most.
Defense Unicorns treated CMMC as a strategic investment in mission assurance rather than a compliance hurdle, the company said. From day one, the company built a security framework tailored to real-world DoD environments by integrating continuous monitoring, strict access controls, and human-factor safeguards. This ensures that secure software delivery happens seamlessly, without sacrificing speed or operational impact.
“At Defense Unicorns, security isn’t something we bolt on at the end,” said Alexis Gerst, lead of security vanguard at Defense Unicorns. “It’s woven into everything we do. We don’t just meet cybersecurity standards; we operationalize them in a way that preserves speed, delivery, and mission impact.”
Source: Defense Unicorns
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