About Core4 Innovations

Core4 Innovations is a research and development company that specializes in aerospace engineering. It primarily focuses on creating prototypes and one-off components for satellites and communication devices. The company was founded three years ago and has worked with DoD customers such as Area 51 and major primes.

Caitlin Earl, CEO of Core4 Innovations, is primarily responsible for managing the company’s day-to-day operations, with a focus on the administrative and financial side of the business. The company faced pressure from its prime to meet its contract's NIST 800-171, DFARS 7012, and CMMC cybersecurity requirements. It was crucial for Caitlin and her team to address these requirements in order to continue doing business with them.

It's amazing to know that we have Atomus looking out for us. Now we can have peace of mind our cybersecurity is being done correctly.”

Caitlin Earl

CEO of Core4 Innovations

Story Highlights

• Facing Compliance Pressure from a Major Prime: Under pressure from their prime to comply with NIST 800-171, DFARS 7012, and CMMC, Atomus played a key role in helping Core4 Innovations meet these requirements, ultimately building better trust between the two companies.
• Handling Compliance as a Small Business: Core4 Innovations struggled to comply with NIST 800-171, DFARS 7012, and CMMC. They relied on a time-consuming and overwhelming in-house process. Atomus provided automation and expert support, helping them streamline compliance and focus on growth.
• A Solution that Provides Peace of Mind: With Atomus, Core4 Innovations now has peace of mind that its cybersecurity is being handled correctly and can focus on growing and providing the best components to the defense industrial base.

Facing Compliance Pressure from a Major Prime

Working for a major prime, Core4 Innovations experienced a lot of pressure to address the NIST 800-171, DFARS 7012, and CMMC cybersecurity requirements in their contracts. When major primes ask about these requirements, they follow the DoD assessment framework. Core4 Innovations was asked about these requirements through security questionnaires and forms. As the company took on more sensitive projects, the security questionnaires and documents Core4 Innovations were asked to provide became more detailed, and they had to complete them within shorter deadlines to continue doing business with their prime.

Using Atomus to address these compliance requirements allowed Core4 Innovations to build a higher level of trust with their customers and become more attractive to other primes. Atomus provided Core4 Innovations with a solution that effectively addressed these requirements. The solution automated the implementation and documentation of technical controls and offered access to industry experts for assistance with questionnaires, forms, and any other complex compliance questions. This gave their prime more confidence in Core4 Innovations' ability to become fully compliant and become their long-term vendor for components.

Handling Compliance as a Small Business

Before partnering with Atomus, Core4 Innovations faced significant challenges in becoming compliant with NIST 800-171, DFARS 7012, and CMMC. Their previous approach to complying with these requirements was handling everything in-house. It consisted of manually filling out the security questionnaires and forms their prime requested. Due to the teams’ limited internal expertise in cybersecurity and compliance, they had difficulty understanding the complexities of NIST 800-171. This led to uncertainty about whether they were correctly meeting the requirements. Without a structured process or any support, Core4 Innovations tried to handle everything themselves, but it became very time-consuming and overwhelming.

A huge challenge Core4 Innovations experienced while searching for a NIST 800-171, DFARS 7012, and CMMC compliance solution was finding a provider that specialized in small aerospace and defense companies. Atomus provides a solution that specializes in helping small and medium-sized aerospace and defense companies with these compliance requirements. For Core4 Innovations, the solution’s unique combination of technology and human support services helped them significantly. The Aegis platform helped the company automate the documentation process and streamline its cybersecurity implementation, monitoring, and maintenance. While Atomus’ compliance experts helped answer questionnaires and any other hard questions from their prime.

If our prime asked us a complex compliance question, I could send an email and Atomus would immediately reply with a quick turn around.”

Caitlin Earl

CEO of Core4 Innovations

A Solution that Provides Peace of Mind

Atomus’ solution has been transformative to Core4 Innovations compliance journey. As a small company, Core4 Innovations struggled with these requirements. With Atomus, the company now has peace of mind that its cybersecurity is being handled correctly. The solution's unique combination of technology and expert human support services has provided Core4 Innovations with the ability to handle any compliance request from their prime, quickly meet short deadlines, and maintain ongoing compliance. This has helped strengthen their relationship with their prime and enabled Core4 Innovations to focus on growing and providing the best components to the defense industrial base.