CMMC success by design: How Elastic and MAD Security deliver compliance confidence

For organizations in the DIB, cybersecurity has never been a simple box-checking exercise. With CMMC 2.0 officially in full swing, the Department of Defense (DoD) CIO isn’t just asking for cybersecurity lip service — they’re demanding receipts.

Real controls. Real-time visibility. Real resilience.

With the rollout of CMMC 2.0, the expectations have become even more specific — and in many ways, more demanding. It’s no longer enough to have good intentions or a decent IT setup. If you want to stay in the running for DoD and federal contracts, you’ve got to demonstrate a clear, well-structured cybersecurity game plan that meets the demanding standards of CMMC compliance.

This is a tall order for any organization, especially when internal resources are stretched thin and the compliance landscape keeps shifting. It’s not just about trying to pass an audit — it’s about trying to build a security posture that can take a punch and prove it on paper. That’s where the right partners make all the difference.

At the heart of meeting — and sustaining — CMMC compliance is the ability to continuously monitor, detect, and respond to threats. That’s the fundamental job of a security operations center (SOC). For contractors in the defense and federal supply chains, having a functioning SOC isn’t a bonus anymore — it’s a baseline expectation.

A mature SOC provides 24/7 visibility across systems, endpoints, and network infrastructure. It centralizes the detection and investigation of suspicious activity, streamlines response, and ensures nothing slips through the cracks. In practical terms, a SOC operationalizes key requirements across several critical CMMC domains, including:

• Audit and accountability (AU): Generating, retaining, and reviewing audit logs to identify unauthorized access or actions

• Incident response (IR): Tracking, managing, and reporting cybersecurity incidents in real time — internally and, when required, externally

• System and information integrity (SI): Monitoring for malware, anomalies, and other indicators of compromise that could signal a deeper issue

This kind of capability isn’t something most organizations can spin up overnight. Standing up a SOC with the right infrastructure, tools, and personnel — while ensuring it meets CMMC-specific requirements — is a heavy lift, both technically and financially.

A well-run SOC doesn’t just help you react faster — it puts you in a position to anticipate issues and close gaps before they’re exploited. It’s less about passing an audit and more about building real, lasting resilience. And that’s ultimately the goal: compliance that holds up under pressure, supported by security that doesn’t blink.

That’s why many DIB contractors are turning to managed SOC services designed specifically with CMMC in mind. These services offer a more sustainable way to maintain compliance and improve security posture, leveraging both self-managed and cloud-native platforms that scale with your needs and align tightly with CMMC expectations.

To support DIB contractors effectively, a SOC has to do more than monitor alerts — it needs to integrate deeply with the operational realities of compliance. That’s why organizations are choosing to build their SOCs around Elastic Security.

Elastic Security helps teams protect, investigate, and respond to threats before damage is done. On the Search AI Platform, fueled by advanced analytics with years of data from across your attack surface, customers can eliminate data silos across commands and weapon systems, automate prevention and detection, and streamline investigation and response. This even works if your data is geographically distributed. Elastic's cross-cluster search capability allows seamless querying across multiple Elasticsearch clusters, regardless of physical location. This can include environments that are self-managed on-premises or in the cloud, in a hybrid or multi-cloud topology, or even in maritime environments and remote locations.

Elastic isn’t just a component of a compliance platform — it’s the engine that makes the whole system work. Acting as the central nervous system of the SOC, Elastic ingests telemetry from across client environments — endpoints, network traffic, cloud workloads — and turns that raw data into actionable intelligence. This enables analysts to respond in real time, track emerging threats, and maintain a clear, auditable view of security operations.


Elastic’s advanced security capabilities support analyst workloads to quickly investigate and close alerts. This includes the Elastic AI Assistant for Security with a customizable Knowledge Base to allow analysts to refer to customer specific playbooks and information during an investigation, Attack Discovery to automate analysis of alerts and identify the actual attacks within them, and Automatic Import to quickly onboard new data sets into the platform. Elastic’s robust data tiering stores data in a cost effective manner while enabling investigative operations and cross-cluster search to protect Denied, Disrupted, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) environments, including those at the tactical edge.

Meeting CMMC requirements isn’t just a matter of technology — it’s about understanding the framework, applying it in context, and maintaining it over time. That’s where having the right partner can make a real difference.

MAD Security operates a fully US-based, veteran-led SOC out of Huntsville, Alabama, hosted in Elastic’s FedRAMP Moderate AWS GovCloud offering. Backed by real-world experience in DFARS and NIST compliance, MAD Security brings both technical know-how and strategic insight. The team understands how to balance security, compliance, and mission needs in environments where the margin for error is slim. It’s a partnership built on trust, shaped by expertise, and measured by results.

The MAD Security team supports organizations across the DIB as they work to meet, and sustain, CMMC compliance. As both a CMMC Registered Provider Organization (RPO) and a certified Level 2 External Service Provider (ESP), they’re deeply familiar with the technical and procedural demands of the framework — from initial gap assessments to ongoing operational monitoring.

MAD Security’s SOC is powered by Elastic Security and purpose-built for DIB contractors. It aligns directly with critical CMMC domains such as Audit & Accountability, Incident Response, and System & Information Integrity. It’s not just built to monitor and respond — it’s structured to meet the expectations of auditors, regulators, and stakeholders in the DoD space.

And the impact is tangible. Several clients supported by MAD Security have achieved a perfect SPRS score of 110. Behind that perfect SPRS score are real stories: CISOs who can finally take vacation without their phones glued to their sides, project managers who no longer lose contracts due to security concerns, and small teams who can focus on their core missions. Instead of becoming reluctant security experts overnight, Elastic empowers them to focus on the things that matter. This achievement is not just a compliance milestone — it’s a signal to partners and procurement officers alike that security isn’t an afterthought. It’s a competitive edge.

Public sector compliance and security: Different goals, same foundation

It’s a common misconception that compliance automatically equals security. The truth is more nuanced: CMMC gives you a framework, but how you implement it — and how you operate day-to-day — determines whether you’re actually protected.

Government CISOs consistently report that their teams are overwhelmed — caught between mounting compliance requirements and the need to defend against increasingly sophisticated threats. Elastic's AI-driven security capabilities, combined with MAD Security's powerful suite of managed security services, can dramatically reduce the operational burden on your internal teams. Your team is afforded the ability to focus on sustainable, high-value security initiatives rather than drowning in compliance documentation and false positives.

Elastic directly supports core technical practices outlined in CMMC Level 2 that enable MAD to help organizations achieve CMMC Level 2. Here’s how MAD Security uses Elastic to meet key CMMC control requirements:

AU.L2-3.3.x – Audit Logging & Correlation

Supports: CMMC audit logging, SIEM for CMMC

• 3.3.1: Elastic collects and retains system audit logs, enabling monitoring, analysis, and reporting of unauthorized activity.

• 3.3.3: Logged events are reviewed and updated through automated detection logic and human analysis.

• 3.3.4: Elastic alerts SOC personnel in the event of an audit logging failure, ensuring visibility into logging integrity issues.

• 3.3.5: Logs are stored within Elastic clusters, enabling correlation of events for rapid threat detection and investigation.

• 3.3.6: Built-in reporting and log reduction tools allow for on-demand analysis and report generation.

• 3.3.8 & 3.3.9: Role-based access controls and encryption protect log data and management functions from unauthorized access or tampering.

Supports: Monitoring for anomalies, alerts, and attack indicators

• 3.14.6: Elastic continuously monitors inbound and outbound network traffic for signs of attack, enabling MAD Security’s SOC to detect early indicators of compromise.

• 3.14.7: Through user behavior analytics and endpoint monitoring, Elastic helps identify unauthorized use of organizational systems.

These capabilities are foundational for proactive detection and align directly with the core CMMC requirement to monitor and protect systems from threats.

Supports: CMMC incident response platform

• Elastic case management enables MAD Security’s SOC analysts to track security incidents from initial alert to closure, documenting each phase.

• Incidents are reported in alignment with CMMC requirements, internally to stakeholders and externally as required.

• The platform supports integrated workflows and response playbooks that drive consistency and ensure no step is missed.

Supports: Privilege abuse detection, endpoint visibility

• Elastic Agents deployed to endpoints log privileged function execution and restrict access based on user roles.

• MAD Security monitors and alerts on unauthorized attempts, satisfying the CMMC requirement to capture and control privileged access.

Supports: Real-time scanning, malware prevention, and updates

• Elastic provides signature-based and behavioral-based protection at the endpoint level.

• Real-time scans are triggered as files are opened or downloaded, and agents are updated as new definitions are released.

• Scheduled system scans ensure a layered defense model that aligns with CMMC Level 1 and Level 2 malware protection requirements.

Elastic’s ability to correlate events across different systems, automate detection workflows, and generate compliance-ready reports means MAD Security can provide clients with both improved security outcomes and the documentation needed to demonstrate compliance.

In short, Elastic helps make CMMC practical — not just possible.

By aligning the right technology with real-world security needs and compliance expectations, MAD Security helps clients not just meet CMMC standards, but build a stronger, more resilient cybersecurity foundation for the long haul.

CMMC is a real chance for public sector organizations to stand out and stay secure in an increasingly complex cyber landscape.

That’s why more organizations are building their compliance strategies on Elastic. Elastic’s unified platform delivers the visibility, automation, and intelligence needed to meet CMMC’s technical requirements — while its AI-driven security solution supports real-time threat detection, rapid response, and streamlined audit readiness.

Elastic is more than a platform — we’re a strategic partner. One that helps you operationalize compliance, adapt to evolving threats, and build a resilient security foundation that grows with you.

MAD Security is a powerful example of what’s possible — using Elastic to help defense contractors strengthen their security and earn top SPRS scores without the burnout.

So if you’re tired of checking boxes and ready to operationalize compliance, ask yourself: Is your security platform ready to prove it?