CMMC Final Rule Arrives — What It Means and How Varonis Can Help

The DoD announced the final rule for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), making compliance a gatekeeper for doing business with the DoD — here's what you need to know.

Trevor Douglas

2 min read

Last updated September 11, 2025

The Department of Defense announced the final rule for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), a long-awaited step that cements CMMC as the cybersecurity standard for the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) and makes compliance a contractual gatekeeper for doing business with the DoD.

The rule was passed on September 8, 2025, which will officially take effect on November 10, 2025.

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Key takeaways from the final rule

Three certification levels: The requirements for Level 1 (Foundational), Level 2 (Advanced), and Level 3 (Expert) are now finalized.
Pre-Award Requirement: No CMMC certification, no contract award — period.
Assessment Model:
- Level 1: Annual self-assessments
- Level 2: Triennial third-party assessments (C3PAO) for CUI
- Level 3: DoD-led assessments for the highest sensitivity
Alignment to NIST SP 800-171 & 800-172: The rule now reinforces these standards with mandatory verification.
Implementation timeline: A phased rollout will start November 10, 2025, with full enforcement by FY2027.

What this means for DoD contractors

This isn’t just about getting ready for CMMC anymore — the compliance clock is ticking.

Certification has become a make-or-break requirement for winning contracts, and it applies to both prime contractors and every subcontractor in the supply chain. It’s essential to show strong data governance and protection of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), especially in the face of foreign access risks and insider threats.

Trying to manually discover and track CUI won’t cut it as the new rule expects continuous monitoring, documented evidence, and real-time visibility across the board.

How Varonis Helps

Varonis delivers the fastest, most cost-effective path to CMMC readiness by automating the most challenging compliance tasks and eliminating manual, error-prone processes.

Accelerate Readiness – Reduce CUI data discovery from months to weeks.
Automated CUI Discovery & Classification – Locate and classify CUI at scale across on-premises and cloud platforms, including M365, Google Drive, AWS, Box, Teams, Slack, and more.
Map and Monitor CUI Data Flows – Understand how sensitive information moves between systems to meet CMMC mapping requirements.
Continuous Compliance Monitoring – Detect and respond to policy violations instantly, maintaining compliance between assessments.
Audit-Ready Reporting – Provide assessors with regulator-ready evidence aligned directly to CMMC controls.

Proven Impact

Varonis has a demonstrated ability to significantly reduce the time and labor required for CUI discovery and access reviews. Its AI-driven automation improves classification accuracy, ensuring sensitive data is properly identified and protected.

With 24/7 monitoring and anomaly detection, Varonis helps reduce the risk of data breaches by identifying threats in real time. Additionally, it streamlines audit preparation, enabling organizations to approach assessments with confidence and be ready to pass on the first attempt.

The Bottom Line

Organizations that prepare for CMMC now will avoid any last-minute scrambling and be ready when those requirements hit their contracts.

With Varonis, you can find, classify, secure, and monitor your CUI across your environment, close compliance gaps, and keep your DoD business moving.

What should I do now?

Below are three ways you can continue your journey to reduce data risk at your company:

Schedule a demo with us to see Varonis in action. We'll personalize the session to your org's data security needs and answer any questions.

See a sample of our Data Risk Assessment and learn the risks that could be lingering in your environment. Varonis' DRA is completely free and offers a clear path to automated remediation.

Follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and X (Twitter) for bite-sized insights on all things data security, including DSPM, threat detection, AI security, and more.

Trevor Douglas As a Senior Federal Sales Engineer at Varonis, Trevor helps government organizations protect their most sensitive data from cyber threats, insider risks, and compliance violations. With over ten years of experience in the industry and a CompTIA Security+ certification, he has the technical skills and knowledge to demonstrate the value and benefits of Varonis' data security platform to federal customers and prospects. Prior to joining Varonis, Trevor served as an Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Systems Engineer in the United States Marine Corps for five years, where he developed and maintained various intelligence systems and networks in support of military operations and missions. He also holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Government from Merrimack College.