5 Cyber Gaps Plaguing Today’s DIB Contractors—And How to Close Them Fast
Why This Matters More Than Ever
When the Pentagon rolled out CMMC 2.0, it wasn’t trying to torture small machine shops or niche engineering firms—it was trying to plug the leaks that cost the United States an estimated $600 billion a year in stolen intellectual property.1 If you build drone brackets, write avionics software, or even print labels for a prime, you’re now part of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) supply chain—and you’re on the hook for keeping Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) out of the wrong hands.
Yet scroll any DIB forum and you’ll see the same refrain:
“We’re too small for a full SOC.”
“Our MSP says we’re secure, but we can’t prove it.”
“The auditor wants evidence logs we never saved.”
Below are the five biggest cybersecurity headaches we hear from mid-tier contractors every week—plus quick-hit tactics (and one automated workspace) that can swing the odds back in your favour.
Mystery Machines on the Network
The Pain
Walk into most fabrication plants and you’ll find a graveyard of “ghost devices”: old laptops running Windows 7, PLCs nobody remembers buying, and dusty Raspberry Pis that once drove a test rig. Each unpatched box is a potential beachhead for attackers—and a direct hit on NIST 800-171 control 3.4.1 (asset management).
The Fix
One-time discovery blast: Run an nmap sweep or deploy an RMM agent and pull an inventory CSV.
Tag CUI-touching assets: Anything that views, stores, or processes tech data gets the “CUI” label.
Retire or segment the zombies: If it isn’t needed, yank it. If it must stay, drop it on a VLAN with no internet.
Where TryComplai Helps
Plug your inventory CSV into TryComplai’s Asset Manager and the platform auto-maps each device to the relevant CMMC controls. Any asset missing MFA, EDR, or patches shows up red on the dashboard so you can fix it before an auditor ever steps through the door.
The “Spreadsheet-as-SIEM” Problem
The Pain
Walk into most fabrication plants and you’ll find a graveyard of “ghost devices”: old laptops running Windows 7, PLCs nobody remembers buying, and dusty Raspberry Pis that once drove a test rig. Each unpatched box is a potential beachhead for attackers—and a direct hit on NIST 800-171 control 3.4.1 (asset management).
The Fix
Centralise everything: Even a free Elastic stack on a spare VM is better than zipped CSVs.
Set retention and clocks: Keep logs 90 days minimum; sync NTP so timestamps line up.
Alert, don’t just store: Basic threshold alerts (e.g., five failed logins in a minute) close a huge detection gap.
Where TryComplai Helps
The Evidence Collector module hooks straight into Microsoft 365, AWS, CrowdStrike, even on-prem Windows Event Forwarding. Logs stream continuously and tag themselves to AU and IR control families. Need proof during a C3PAO visit? One click exports the last 90 days in auditor-friendly format.
The Vanishing SPRS Score
The Pain
Under DFARS 252.204-7024, contracting officers open the Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS) before they even look at your bid price. If your score is missing—or worse, under 70—your proposal often hits the bin. Too many contractors upload a single 110/110 score two years ago and never update it while POA&Ms languish.
The Fix
Re-score quarterly: It tracks with patch cycles and makes sure your POA&Ms stay realistic.
Document evidence, not vibes: Each “implemented” claim needs a PDF, screenshot, or config export.
Use rolling POA&Ms: Close one item, open a new one—show the DoD you’re improving, not coasting.
Where TryComplai Helps
The platform recalculates your live SPRS score every night. Close a control and watch the number climb instantly. Need to upload? Export the score + POA&M as a signed JSON bundle the SPRS portal accepts without manual edits.
Policy-Factory Fatigue
The Pain
CMMC 2.0 still requires 110 practices—and every one needs documented policy behind it. Copy-pasting from NIST templates means hours of search-replace hell, then more hours tweaking language so it matches how your shop actually works. Most teams quit halfway and hope no one notices the gaps.
The Fix
Start with a skeleton: One master policy per NIST family (14 total) keeps the pile manageable.
Write in plain English: Auditors care about intent, not five-dollar words.
Version-control in Git or SharePoint: Amend policies like code; track who changed what, when.
Where TryComplai Helps
Click Generate Policies, answer a handful of prompts (employee count, cloud providers, physical sites), and the AI spits out tailored policies complete with references back to 800-171 paragraphs. Edit the doc right inside the browser; every save stamps a new version and audit trail.
The “One-and-Done” Syndrome
The Pain
A frantic six-month sprint to pass the first audit, followed by two-and-a-half years of silence. Patches slow, MFA exceptions creep back, and by the time re-cert rolls around, the control decay is so bad you’re basically starting from zero.
The Fix
Quarterly tabletop drills: Pick an incident-response scenario and walk the team through roles.
Scoreboard on the wall: Display key metrics (patch compliance, MFA coverage, open POA&Ms) like safety stats.
Reward stickiness: Tie managers’ bonuses to security KPIs, not just production output.
Where TryComplai Helps
Dashboards refresh every 24 hours and email a Friday Risk Snapshot to leadership. If cameras drop offline or AV signatures age out, red tiles light up. Compliance becomes a living metric—no more nasty surprises at year three.
Putting It All Together: A 30-Day Sprint Plan
Week 1 – Visibility & Inventory
Goal: Zero unknown assets; current SPRS score entered.
Run a full network scan & RMM inventory.
Bulk-load CSV into TryComplai; auto-tag CUI devices.
Generate a fresh SPRS score; upload to the portal.
Week 2 – High-Impact Controls
Goal: MFA everywhere, logs centralised.
Enforce conditional access on Microsoft 365, VPN, ERP.
Point all Windows hosts to a central log collector (native or TryComplai agent).
Enable nightly backups with encryption and off-site replication.
Week 3 – Policy & Proof
Goal: Documented controls match reality.
Use Policy Generator to create the 14 NIST family policies.
Attach evidence artefacts to each implemented control.
Review POA&Ms; set believable close dates.
Week 4 – Continuous Motion
Goal: Compliance becomes muscle memory.
Schedule weekly patch reports and quarterly phishing drills.
Turn on Friday Risk Snapshot emails to exec staff.
Book a dry-run audit with your C3PAO (or an internal auditor if Level 1).
Stick to that roadmap and you’ll walk into the assessment calm, coffee in hand, while competitors scramble for last-minute screenshots.
CyberSecurity FAQ's
The biggest threat isn’t a nation-state hack—it’s unmanaged devices, expired MFA, or gaps in log collection that go unnoticed. These “silent breaches” happen because small teams lack the time or tools for continuous monitoring.
At minimum, quarterly. Many contractors submit a perfect 110 score once, then let their environment drift. Regular updates help you stay competitive during contract awards and show that you're continuously improving your cybersecurity posture.
Screenshots, system logs, policy documents, and configuration exports tied to specific controls. Auditors aren’t just looking for answers—they want proof. TryComplai automates this by attaching real-time artefacts to each requirement.
Yes. Platforms like TryComplai replace hundreds of hours of manual prep by automating log collection, policy generation, control tracking, and evidence exports. Ideal for small and mid-sized contractors with lean teams.
After passing the first audit, many contractors relax—patching slows, exceptions grow, logs stop flowing. By the next audit, compliance has deteriorated. Continuous monitoring and automation prevent this costly reset.
Ask ChatGPT
Final Word: Make Cybersecurity Boring—Because Boring Wins Contracts
China-based APTs and ransomware crews thrive on chaos. When your logs stream automatically, your policies version themselves, and your SPRS score climbs a point every sprint, life gets boring for attackers—and lucrative for you.
You can duct-tape spreadsheets and hope, or you can let a purpose-built CMMC workspace do the heavy lifting. TryComplai isn’t magic; it simply automates the drudge work so your team can weld parts, design circuits, or write code—securely.
Ready to see it live? Book a Demo Here
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