The End of Guesswork: How Automation is Revolutionizing Defense Compliance

BALTIMORE, MD – June 17, 2026 – For the more than 100,000 companies comprising the U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB), achieving Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is not just a regulatory hurdle; it's a fundamental requirement for doing business. Yet, a foundational and notoriously difficult challenge has plagued contractors for years: accurately identifying and scoping Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). A new partnership announced today between compliance platform FutureFeed and CUI discovery specialist Teramis aims to solve this problem by replacing manual guesswork with automated precision, a move that could reshape the entire compliance landscape.

The collaboration embeds Teramis's automated CUI discovery and monitoring tool directly into FutureFeed's Cyber-GRC platform. This integration provides defense contractors—from prime manufacturers to small sub-contractors—with a continuously monitored, evidence-based map of their sensitive data, a critical first step in building a defensible cybersecurity program.

The Foundational Flaw in CMMC Scoping

CMMC compliance begins with a deceptively simple question that has proven to be a multi-million-dollar stumbling block for many organizations. "Every CMMC engagement begins with the same question - where is the CUI?" said Mark Berman, CEO of FutureFeed. "For too long the answer has come from interviews, assumptions, and hope, which is not a foundation anyone can defend in an assessment."

This reliance on manual processes—conducting employee interviews, sifting through spreadsheets, and making educated guesses—is not only time-consuming but also dangerously prone to error. CUI can be anything from technical drawings and engineering specifications to contract details, and it often resides in unexpected locations across a network. For an enterprise with millions of files, a manual review is a "mathematical impossibility," according to industry analysts. The result is often an incomplete or inaccurate CUI boundary, leading to failed audits, costly remediation, and potential contract loss.

Complicating matters further, traditional data loss prevention (DLP) and eDiscovery tools, often repurposed for CUI scanning, have proven inadequate for the task. These general-purpose solutions frequently generate an overwhelming number of false positives, with some studies showing rates as high as 86% to 99%. This forces security teams to waste valuable time manually validating thousands of alerts, creating alert fatigue and undermining the very purpose of automation.

A Technical Leap in Data Discovery

The challenge Teramis set out to solve was not just to find CUI, but to find it with surgical precision across the complex file types common in the defense sector. The company claims its tool can identify CUI with up to 99.99% accuracy, a figure attributed to advanced algorithms that go far beyond simple keyword matching. This technology is engineered to understand the context and structure of CUI as it appears in the wild.

"The hardest part of protecting CUI is knowing where it lives. Manual scoping doesn't scale, and it doesn't hold up," explained Brandon Sessions, President of Teramis. The tool's ability to find CUI in file types that other solutions miss—including AutoCAD drawings, PDFs with embedded images, and scanned documents—is a significant differentiator. For defense contractors, whose most sensitive intellectual property often exists in large, complex engineering files, this capability is critical. Many generic tools have file size limitations that cause them to skip the very documents that pose the greatest risk.

To ensure its results can withstand the scrutiny of a formal CMMC assessment, Teramis employs a validation methodology aligned with Department of Defense sampling standards (MIL-STD-105E). This provides a statistically valid and defensible report that demonstrates to assessors that the organization has a robust process for identifying its sensitive data. Furthermore, the tool operates entirely within the client's own environment—whether on-premises or in the cloud—eliminating data transfer risks and the need for separate FedRAMP authorizations.

Integrating Automation into the Compliance Workflow

While powerful on its own, the true innovation of the partnership lies in the integration. By embedding Teramis directly into the FutureFeed platform, which already serves over 1,400 clients in the DIB, the solution transforms CUI discovery from a standalone project into a continuous, integrated part of the compliance lifecycle.

For a defense contractor, this means their CUI boundary is no longer a static snapshot in time but a living, monitored environment. The platform can continuously scan for "CUI spillage"—instances where sensitive data moves outside the protected boundary—and flag it for remediation before it becomes a reportable incident. This shift from a reactive to a proactive posture is essential for maintaining compliance in dynamic IT environments.

This automated, evidence-based approach promises significant efficiency gains. Industry experts suggest that by eliminating the immense manual labor of CUI discovery and preventing costly audit failures from inaccurate scoping, companies can reduce their overall CMMC compliance costs by as much as 60-80%. "Teramis replaces guesswork with evidence, automatically," Berman stated. "That's the certainty our partners and the contractors they serve deserve."

Strengthening the Nation's Digital Defenses

The implications of this partnership extend far beyond simplifying compliance for individual companies. By providing a scalable and accurate solution for CUI discovery, it addresses a systemic vulnerability across the entire Defense Industrial Base. Adversaries increasingly target the supply chain, seeking to exploit the weakest link to steal sensitive intellectual property and military technology.

The DoD's CMMC 2.0 initiative is designed to counter this threat by mandating a universal standard of cybersecurity hygiene. However, the cost and complexity of compliance have risked pushing smaller, innovative companies out of the defense market. Technologies that lower these barriers are therefore crucial for maintaining a diverse and resilient supply chain.

By ensuring that all contractors, large and small, can accurately identify and protect the nation's sensitive data, this integrated solution contributes directly to national security. It provides the foundational layer of data visibility upon which all other security controls are built. By replacing guesswork with evidence, the partnership aims to build a more resilient digital foundation for the nation's defense.