The Benefits of Working with a NIST 800-171 Compliance Consultant

NIST SP 800-171 details how Department of Defense (DoD) contractors must protect sensitive data when working with the U.S. government.

The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) standard originates from the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) and is codified under DFARS 252.204-7012 for defense contractors. NIST SP 800-171 sets the security requirements and controls needed for safeguarding that information in non-federal systems.

The goal of NIST is to show that your business can be trustees to handle sensitive information as part of DoD contracts.

But implementing NIST 800-171 controls isn’t always a straightforward process, especially if you’ve not been through the process before. That’s why many organizations turn to NIST compliance consultants to assist. In this guide, I’ll share everything you need to know about hiring a NIST consultant to help your organization meet NIST 800-171 requirements.

What is a NIST 800-171 Consultant? (And Why You Likely Need One)

A NIST 800-171 consultant is a cybersecurity specialist and often a CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) Registered Practitioner who helps your organization to translate NIST 800-171 compliance into actionable steps for your organization so that you can implement the controls and achieve CMMC certification.

If you haven’t implemented controls to meet the NIST requirements before, a consultant is likely a must have to ensure your team is on the right track and not misinterpreting anything as the NIST 800-171 documentation is written in dense, technical language that may be confusing to anyone unfamiliar with cybersecurity and the NIST framework.

A NIST compliance consultant will help prepare your organization to pass a CMMC audit, ensuring you have all the necessary evidence to satisfy that each control is in place.

When to Hire a NIST 800-171 Consultant vs. DIY

In my opinion, 90% of all organizations working as DoD and therefore requiring CMMC should work with a consultant. CMMC isn’t optional and as with any business-critical function, you can’t afford to overlook it or risk non-compliance (it could cost you all of your government/DoD work).

Even if you only handle Federal Contract Information (FCI) and require CMMC Level 1, don't go it alone. While Level 1 is a self-assessment, the cost of error remains high. Unless you have an in-house CISO who knows NIST 800-171 and has been through the CMMC process before, you should partner with an expert to validate your approach and ensure your controls are implemented as expected.

If you work with Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), then a consultant or Registered Practitioner Organization (RPO) is a must. CMMC Level 2 compliance requires your organization to implement 110 controls and needs a third-party assessment (C3PAO).

While going it alone may seem like the most cost-effective, it rarely turns out to be. Unless you have an experienced CISO that knows NIST and CMMC inside out, you’ll likely spend hundreds of hours investigating and implementing controls that a seasoned practitioner could have helped you avoid.

The Benefits of a NIST 800-171 Consultant

NIST Experience

This one may sound obvious, but a consultant will bring deep expertise in the NIST framework and have experience implementing NIST controls at a range of organizations. Their understanding of NIST will help your organization to effectively turn requirements into actional steps you can take to achieve compliance.

Streamlined Processes

However, you approach it, implementing NIST 800-171 compliance is a lot of work and resource-intensive. But a consultant will know the best practices and how you can avoid any roadblocks through your compliance journey. They’ll be able to effectively guide your team from start to finish, ensuring that you’re not wasting time and valuable resources on tasks that aren't driving progress.

Often, you’ll find the cost of a NIST consultant will easily be made up for by avoiding delays, saving internal time and not being hit by any potential penalties for non-compliance (such as losing your DoD contracts).

Confidence

When your business relies on DoD contracts, you don’t want to go into an audit unsure of the result. With a NIST consultant, you’ll be able to head into audits with conferences that you’ll pass. A NIST consultant will have been through the process many times before and can help ensure you have the needed controls, documentation, policies, and procedures in place to satisfy the third-party assessment (for CMMC Level 2) or confidently self-attest (for CMMC Level 1).

Planning and Risk Assessment

A huge part of successful NIST 800-171 compliance begins before you even think about implementing controls. An experienced consultant can help you perform a gap analysis to take scope of where you’re at in your cybersecurity journey and what gaps need to be filled.

Skipping this step and diving straight into controls is one of the biggest mistakes organizations can make because reducing the scope of your audit can save tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs and resources.

If you have 100 employees, but only 5 of them handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), you should not be paying to secure 100 laptops and 100 email accounts to NIST standards. (Instead you should build a CUI enclave.)

Building a Cybersecurity Program

NIST 800-171 is just one aspect of a successful cybersecurity program. Working with a consultant will enable your organization to zoom out and look at the whole picture to figure out how NIST fits into your overall cybersecurity posture and where else you should be focusing to stay secure and unlock growth.

For example, many organizations will find they need to implement multiple cybersecurity frameworks to meet the needs of all of their customers. A consultant can help you plan and implement NIST alongside other frameworks like CMMC, SOC 2, and FedRAMP.

What are the NIST 800-171 Controls?

The NIST framework organizes its 110 controls into 17 control families. Families are essentially buckets of related practices. Here’s a breakdown of each control family:

1. Access Control (AC): Ensures your business restricts data access to people who strictly need to use it. Contractors must use role-based permissions and require multi-factor authentication for all admin or privileged accounts.
2. Awareness and Training (AT): Makes sure your employees are trained on cybersecurity risks and responsibilities.
3. Audit and Accountability (AU): Means your business must establish logs and monitoring for all user and system activity.
4. Configuration Management (CM): Ensures your organization maintains secure configurations.
5. Identification and Authentication (IA): Means all users have to verify their identity before they can access CUI.
6. Incident Response (IR): A written plan that explains exactly how your business responds to a cyber incident.
7. Maintenance (MA): Systems for handling maintenance and updates, ensuring security at all times.
8. Media Protection (MP): Safeguard all devices so data stays protected if they are lost.
9. Personnel Security (PS): A screening process for all new hires with background checks before granting system access.
10. Physical Protection (PE): Ensures physical access to your building and is secure with  badge-controlled doors and detailed visitor logs.
11. Risk Assessment (RA): Regular penetration testing and audits to identify any risks to your IT systems.
12. Security Assessment (CA): Regular assessments of your security controls to ensure it’s all working as it should be.
13. System and Communications Protection (SC): Use encrypted communication to ensure communications channels are secure.
14. System and Information Integrity (SI): Constantly be detecting new potential vulnerabilities.

NIST Compliance Timeline

The journey to achieving full NIST 800-171 compliance isn’t a short one. It can take 12-18 months in some cases, though it can be faster if you already have a strong, mature security posture in place.

If you have government contracts with the DoD, there’s no time to waste with NIST 800-171, especially now that the CMMC final rule is in place and CMMC Level 2 will soon be required for any DoD contracts that involve handling CUI.

Achieve NIST 800-171 Compliance with Workstreet

Compliance with NIST 800-171 is the gateway to the Defense Industrial Base. It allows you to bid on contracts that your competitors can't touch. It is a revenue enabler, not a tax.

If you want to achieve NIST 800-171 compliance as efficiently and as confidently as possible, Workstreet can help. We offer expert-led implementation of CMMC, FedRAMP, GovRAMP, CJIS, NIST 800-171, and NIST 800-53 frameworks. Get certified faster with our automation-first services and dedicated public sector specialists.