CMMC Security Operations Center
A regulatory-based foundation for a robust cybersecurity program, with real-time monitoring and expert-managed defense for your CUI.
What Is a Security Operations Center?
A Security Operations Center is a core part of cybersecurity compliance. It improves your organization's ability to detect, respond to, and mitigate threats in real time.
For defense contractors, a SOC also produces the monitoring, logging, and response records that CMMC assessors expect to see. Running it well means the same operations that protect your environment also support your assessment.
What Our SOC Can Do for You
Regulatory Compliance
Operations built around the requirements your contracts place on you.
Vulnerability Management
Ongoing discovery and tracking of weaknesses across your systems.
Threat Detection and Response
Real-time detection with analysts ready to investigate and act.
SIEM
Security information and event management that centralizes and correlates your logs.
Incident Response
A defined path from detection through containment and recovery.
Continuous Monitoring
Around-the-clock visibility into the systems that touch CUI.
Documentation and Reporting
Records of alerts, investigations, and actions you can hand to an assessor.
Auditing and Assurance
Evidence that your controls are operating as documented.
SOC Operations and CMMC
CMMC does not name a SOC, but several NIST SP 800-171 practices assessed at Level 2 describe what a SOC does.
| Requirement | What It Expects |
|---|---|
| AU.L2-3.3.1 | Create and retain system audit logs and records to enable monitoring, analysis, investigation, and reporting of unlawful or unauthorized activity |
| AU.L2-3.3.5 | Correlate audit record review, analysis, and reporting processes for investigation and response to suspicious activity |
| SI.L2-3.14.6 | Monitor systems, including inbound and outbound traffic, to detect attacks and indicators of potential attacks |
| SI.L2-3.14.7 | Identify unauthorized use of organizational systems |
| IR.L2-3.6.1 | Establish an operational incident handling capability |
Our reporting and documentation are built so you can show an assessor that these practices are running, not only that a policy describes them.
Who Needs a CMMC SOC?
A few situations tend to bring organizations to this conversation.
Handling CUI and needing monitoring that maps to CMMC and NIST SP 800-171
Collecting logs but lacking anyone to review and correlate them
Preparing for an assessment and needing evidence that monitoring runs
Without the staff to run a SOC around the clock
A SOC Run by an Authorized C3PAO
Sentinel Blue is a CyberAB-authorized C3PAO with CMMC Certified Assessors on staff. Our SOC is built by a team that knows how assessors read monitoring and incident response practices.
The SOC is in-house, which keeps detection, investigation, and response under one roof instead of passing alerts between vendors.
Because compliance and security operations come from the same team, the evidence your SOC generates feeds directly into your documentation and your assessment preparation.
CMMC SOC FAQ
CMMC does not use the term SOC, but several NIST SP 800-171 practices it assesses call for the capabilities a SOC delivers. These include audit logging, log review and correlation, monitoring for attacks and unauthorized use, and an operational incident handling capability.
It monitors the systems and communications that touch Controlled Unclassified Information, including endpoints, identity, network traffic, and cloud services. Logs feed a SIEM, where analysts review and correlate activity and escalate what needs a response.
Yes. Capabilities vary by client, and each engagement is built around your environment, your contracts, and the regulatory requirements you answer to. The goal is alignment with those requirements, industry standards, and incident response, not a one-size-fits-all service.
Documentation and reporting are part of the service. Logs, alerts, investigations, and incident records give you evidence that monitoring and response are running, which is what assessors ask to see.
The service is the same in-house team. This page focuses on how SOC operations map to CMMC and NIST SP 800-171 requirements, so your monitoring program is built to stand up under an assessment.
Ready to Get to Work? So Are We.
Our cyber adversaries are not waiting, and neither are we. Let's talk about your IT and cybersecurity needs and how a SOC fits your compliance program.