Enabling the Department of War’s New Vision for Cyber Defense

The Department of War (DoW) has signaled a fundamental transformation with its new Cybersecurity Risk Management Construct (CSRMC), moving from a legacy, document-centric approach to one of dynamic, continuous cyber defense. This shift is grounded in ten core principles designed to enhance mission assurance at the speed of operations. 

With its FedRAMP High Authorization and pending DoD IL5 approval, RegScale’s Continuous Controls Monitoring platform already has a proven track record of success across the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force, as well as multiple federal civilian agencies. This expertise is why we’re already positioned to support the Department of War’s new CSRMC framework, leveraging capabilities like our advanced automation and real-time risk assessment tools.  

We don’t just talk about innovation; we deliver it at scale across the federal government. We’re prioritizing the dynamic monitoring and adaptive security measures that CSRMC demands, positioning our federal partners to not only meet these new requirements but also excel in implementing them. 

Today, we’ll break down the new CSRMC in detail, including its ten core principles. We’ll also demonstrate how you can leverage RegScale’s platform to meet the CSRMC requirements more efficiently. 

What is the CSRMC — and why now?

The Cybersecurity Risk Management Construct is a paradigm shift toward real-time cyber defense capabilities that match the pace of military operations. It includes a comprehensive five-stage framework to ensure that American military forces retain their technological edge against evolving and emerging cyber adversaries. 

Announced earlier this week, the new CSRMC is a response to the limitations of the  NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF). Historically, the RMF has relied heavily on manual processes and static checkboxes, which left defense infrastructure vulnerable to cyberattacks and slowed down the delivery of secure capabilities. 

The CSRMC addresses these issues by leaving behind the periodic, point-in-time assessments and replacing them with fluid, automated, and ongoing risk oversight. Its new framework includes five distinct phases that correspond with system development and deployment: 

1. Design Phase – Security foundations are embedded from the beginning for integrated cyber resilience.
2. Build Phase – Secure designs are implemented as systems progress toward Initial Operating Capability (IOC).
3. Test Phase – Rigorous validation and stress testing happens before Full Operating Capability (FOC).
4. Onboard Phase – Automated continuous monitoring activates upon deployment to maintain constant visibility from the start.
5. Operations Phase – Real-time dashboards and alert systems enable instant threat detection and rapid response.

The 10 core principles of the CSRMC

The new Cybersecurity Risk Management Construct is built on ten strategic tenets announced by the Department of War. Designed not to just check boxes for compliance but to support robust cybersecurity across the public sector, RegScale’s platform is purpose-built to support the CSRMC. 

1. Automation – Driving Efficiency and Scale 

The days of manual checklist-based compliance are over with the DoW’s new vision for automation. RegScale’s compliance as code architecture automates the entire controls lifecycle, from assessment to reporting. Through our thousands of APIs, SDK, and GraphQL layer, we seamlessly connect to existing systems, allowing for the automatic collection of evidence and control data. This automation not only eliminates manual burdens but also scales across the enterprise, ensuring consistency and efficiency. 

2. Critical Controls – Identifying and Tracking What Matters Most 

The CSRMC focuses on the controls that provide the most significant cybersecurity benefit. Our platform enables the Department of War to define, track, weight, and monitor these critical controls in real time. By codifying controls and mapping them to specific assets and systems, RegScale provides a single source of truth that highlights the most important risks, allowing teams to prioritize their efforts effectively. 

3. Continuous Monitoring and ATO – Enabling Real-time Situational Awareness 

A “snapshot in time” authority to operate (ATO) is no longer sufficient. The DoW requires Continuous Monitoring and ATO to maintain a constant cyber-ready posture. RegScale’s CCM platform provides this capability out of the box. By leveraging real-time data from an organization’s existing security tools, we provide a live view of compliance and risk, allowing for immediate action and enabling a perpetual ATO posture. We also work out of the box with systems the DoW knows and trusts, including Tenable, Wiz, STIGs, and eMASS. 

4. DevSecOps – Supporting Secure, Agile Development and Deployment 

To achieve true operational speed, security must be integrated directly into development. Our platform is a natural fit for DevSecOps, as it allows security controls to be codified and integrated into CI/CD pipelines with a complete view of the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) on every build for DoD software factories. With our SDK and a rich set of APIs, developers can embed compliance checks and security testing directly into their software factory workflows — ensuring that security is a core part of agile development and not a bolt-on at the end. 

5. Cyber Survivability – Enabling Operations in Contested Environments 

In modern warfare, systems must remain operational in the face of persistent cyber threats. Cyber survivability is paramount. RegScale’s platform can deploy anywhere, including classified and air-gapped environments, which provides flexibility to the DoW to support their varied national security missions. This approach enables our customers to understand their risk posture and make proactive decisions to ensure their systems can withstand and operate in contested environments. 

6. Training – Upskilling Personnel to Meet Evolving Challenges 

The DoW understands that technology must be paired with skilled personnel. RegScale’s intuitive platform and codified approach simplify the compliance process, allowing personnel to shift their focus from manual data collection to more strategic and valuable tasks like risk analysis and threat mitigation. Our AI agents can both level up the cyber knowledge of warfighters and assist with locking down their critical systems. 

7. Enterprise Services & Inheritance – Reducing Duplication and Compliance Burdens 

Duplication of effort is a major inefficiency. The CSRMC promotes enterprise services and inheritance to streamline the process. Our platform’s ability to codify and reuse security controls and assessments (reciprocity) across different systems and programs is a core feature. We allow for the inheritance of controls from a common control baseline, significantly reducing compliance burdens and freeing up valuable resources for mission-critical tasks. In addition, we support bottom-up control inheritance via OSCAL components. 

8. Operationalization – Ensuring Stakeholders Have Near Real-Time Visibility 

For a risk management construct to be effective, stakeholders need to have near real-time visibility. RegScale provides this operationalization through customizable dashboards and reporting. The platform’s rich data and GraphQL layer enable stakeholders to query data and get a real-time, consolidated view of their cybersecurity risk posture across all systems, ensuring mission commanders have the intelligence they need for effective decision-making. 

9. Reciprocity – Reusing Assessments Across Systems 

The principle of reciprocity is crucial for efficiency. Our compliance as code architecture and ability to handle machine-readable formats like NIST OSCAL allow for assessments to be shared and reused across systems and agencies. This eliminates the need to “redo” the same work, enabling faster deployments and reducing redundant efforts across the enterprise — all while adhering to cutting-edge NIST standards. 

10. Cybersecurity Assessments – Integrating Threat-informed Testing to Validate Security 

Finally, the CSRMC requires the integration of threat-informed testing to validate security. RegScale’s open architecture and extensive API connectivity allow it to integrate with threat intelligence platforms and vulnerability scanners, tying cybersecurity assessments directly to the risk management framework. This ensures that validation is continuous and informed by the latest threats, providing a more accurate and resilient security posture. In addition, our AI agents can audit security posture in real-time to reduce the manual burden and time delays associated with human assessments. 

Enabling a New Era of Federal Cyber Defense

The CSRMC represents the future of federal cybersecurity — and RegScale is already there. Our Continuous Controls Monitoring platform directly supports all ten CSRMC principles, delivering the automated, real-time capabilities that modern defense operations demand. 

We applaud the DoW’s vision for a more real-time and threat-informed security posture, and we’re ready to accelerate the transition to this new paradigm. With out-of-the-box capabilities at the highest security standards, RegScale doesn’t just meet CSRMC requirements; we enable them at mission-critical velocity. 

Ready to transform your cyber defense posture? Learn more here.