When a growing and strategically positioned defense contractor approached Arctiq, they had just one thing: a growing sense of urgency. With CMMC on the horizon, a handful of federal primes were leaning harder on flow-down clauses, and had no real sense of how their environment stacked up, but they knew the clock was ticking. But like many SMBs in the defense industrial base, their budget wasn’t built for a security overhaul, and they couldn’t afford to throw enterprise dollars at the problem.
What they didn’t have was a defined boundary. No formal scoping. No mapped systems. No documented data flows. Their security documentation was a patchwork, an acceptable use policy here, a few SOPs there, but nothing tying together the actual systems that touched Federal Contract Information (FCI), let alone CUI.
Instead of rushing into product recommendations or licensing bundles, we did something most firms wouldn’t: we spent the day on the ground, in person, conducting a free boundary scoping exercise with their team. We walked through every function, facility, and system. We whiteboarded access patterns. We reviewed which users touched which contracts. We dissected the overlap between business systems and contract obligations, even if they weren’t currently processing CUI.
By the time we left, the organization had its first clear definition of its CMMC-relevant system boundary. We documented:
That scoping work became the foundation for everything that followed.
We immediately followed the scoping exercise with a targeted CMMC gap assessment, aligned to both Level 1 and Level 2 requirements. Unlike box-checkers or policy auditors, we didn’t just ask for artifacts, we reviewed them in-depth, line by line.
We examined their:
We identified where they had partial coverage, where control language was generic and unenforceable, and where technical enforcement simply didn’t exist (yet).
Each gap wasn’t just called out, it was mapped to responsibility (internal vs MSP vs Arctiq), given POA&M eligibility (for Level 2), and tied directly to remediation options appropriate for their scale.
With the scope clearly defined and control gaps identified, we transitioned the client into a set of managed security services purpose-built for small businesses operating in the federal space:
We deployed and now operate a Microsoft Sentinel-based SOC customized for their Microsoft-native environment.
We onboarded IPs into our Tenable platform, delivering monthly authenticated scans and tailored remediation reports, cutting down exposure time and aligning cleanly with RA and CM requirements.
Patching is where most small orgs fall apart. We automated theirs. Every in-scope endpoint is now patched on a validated cadence with rollback tested, exception handling built-in, and reporting aligned to audit expectations.
We replaced their legacy platform with a modern, behavioral-driven phishing simulation and awareness solution: two campaigns per month, built-in risk scoring, and alignment to AT and IR controls.
Throughout the engagement, we acted not just as a service provider, but as a CMMC strategic advisor.
They didn’t just feel more secure; they had evidence that proved they were audit-ready.
This client now has:
All delivered with enterprise-grade tooling, without enterprise overhead.
“We needed help, but we didn’t want a pitch. [Arctiq] came in, scoped our environment without charging a dime, and built a security program that actually fits us, not someone 10x our size. We’re ready for our audit, and we’ve got a partner we trust.”
That’s how you scale cybersecurity for the defense industrial base:
smart, scoped, and built for the mission.