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12/06/2026 10:15 pm
TL;DR: CMMC turns identity security and MFA into audit requirements for defense contractors, with level three often serving as the practical target for bid readiness, according to Axiad. The real issue is not just passing an assessment, but proving that access, assurance, and partner controls can survive audit scrutiny and operational change.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Axiad: Three things to look for in a security partner to achieve CMMC compliance
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should defence contractors prepare identity controls for CMMC assessments?
A: They should treat identity as an auditable control domain, not a background IT service.
Q: Why do MFA and identity security matter so much under CMMC?
A: Because CMMC ties access assurance to certification, and certification determines whether contractors can bid on covered work.
Q: What do security teams get wrong when choosing a CMMC compliance partner?
A: They often focus on deployment promises instead of evidence quality, lifecycle support, and operational fit.
Practitioner guidance
- Map identity controls to CMMC maturity requirements Document which authentication, access assurance, and evidence controls support each maturity level, then verify that they can be demonstrated to a third-party assessor without manual reconstruction.
- Validate MFA coverage by user class and access mode Separate employees, subcontractors, and privileged users in the control design, then confirm whether MFA works consistently for online access, offline access, and high-assurance tasks.
- Evaluate partners on audit evidence and lifecycle support Ask vendors how they support recurring access reviews, changing contract scope, and evidence collection over time.
What's in the full article
Axiad's full blog post covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Specific CMMC maturity-level guidance and the compliance distinctions between levels
- Axiad's own implementation framing for MFA, offline access, and email signing capabilities
- The vendor's practical guidance on selecting a security partner for DoD contractor environments
👉 Read Axiad's guidance on CMMC compliance and identity security partner selection →
CMMC level 3 readiness: what IAM teams need to check?
Explore further
13/06/2026 12:54 am
CMMC is fundamentally an identity governance programme disguised as a compliance framework. The article correctly places identity security and MFA at the centre of maturity level three, because that is where contractors prove who can access what, under what assurance, and with what evidence. Once third-party assessment becomes mandatory, access control is no longer just an IT implementation detail. Practitioners should treat CMMC readiness as a governance exercise that lives or dies on identity proof, not security slogans.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 72% of organisations have experienced or suspect they have experienced a breach of non-human identities, with 46% confirmed and 26% suspected, according to The 2024 ESG Report: Managing Non-Human Identities.
- Enterprises that have experienced a compromised NHI averaged 2.7 separate incidents in the past 12 months, which is why identity governance cannot rely on a single assessment cycle.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Who needs to be included in MFA and access assurance planning for CMMC?
A: Employees, subcontractors, and privileged users all need to be considered because CMMC assesses the full access boundary, not just the internal workforce. If any of those groups can reach systems without the required assurance level, the programme has a certification gap rather than a minor policy exception.
👉 Read our full editorial: CMMC compliance depends on identity security and MFA readiness
