Key takeaways

The Department of War (DoW) suspended their Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) timeline by pausing the deadline for Phase II requirements (accreditation via mandatory Certified Third-Party Assessment Organizations, C3PAOs) — originally scheduled to take effect on November 10, 2026.

As the newly formed CMMC reform task force focuses on streamlining the CMMC 2.0 program, the need for heightened cybersecurity standards hasn’t changed.

The reality is that risks are only accelerating in today’s threat landscape, especially as AI enables attackers to orchestrate multi-vector, hypervolumetric, and application-layer attacks.

As a result, it’s critical to remain focused on extending Zero Trust security to the edge of app, API, and workload levels.

Reducing program backlogs, not cybersecurity standards

Though CMMC II requirements are paused while the task force focuses on streamlining the program, that doesn’t mean your compliance strategy stalls.…