A CISO’s Guide to the DoW's New CSRMC Framework

The Department of War’s (DoW) new Cybersecurity Risk Management Construct (CSRMC) marks a watershed moment for cyber defense. This move confirms that static, checklist-based security is obsolete. To defend against modern threats, organizations must adopt the continuous and proactive posture management approach experts have been recommending for years.

The old model's breaking point: The case for change

The traditional security model is caught in a vicious cycle, fueled by a patchwork of disconnected tools that generate overwhelming noise. This constant "signal fog" is the source of the model's greatest flaw: the misuse of human talent. 

Instead of proactively hunting for threats, skilled analysts are buried in repetitive, low-context tasks. This inefficiency is unsustainable on a modern asymmetrical battlefield, where lean security teams with limited budgets are expected to fend off enterprise-level threats.

Such an inefficient environment is ideal for adversaries. While skilled defenders are distracted, attackers exploit the inevitable gaps created by disconnected data silos, forgotten internet-facing assets, third-party vendors, and "Shadow IT". 

The result is crippling alert fatigue, leaving teams in a perpetual game of catch-up. The modern security model breaks this cycle by flipping the dynamic: automation handles the grunt work, freeing human experts to become a strategic force that can properly augment and train the organization's technology.

The true meaning of "continuous"

To break the reactive cycle, organizations must embrace the true meaning of "continuous monitoring." This concept is not simply about running scans more frequently; it represents a profound cultural and technological shift toward achieving real-time situational awareness. 

The goal is to unify the fragmented internal and external signals across the enterprise into a cohesive view of risk.

The power of this unified approach lies in "compounding intelligence," the principle that correlating different security signals creates a single insight that is far more valuable than the sum of its parts. 

For example, knowing a third-party vendor has a specific vulnerability is a single, isolated data point. However, by correlating that information with internal data and discovering that a high-privilege employee uses that vendor's vulnerable service, the organization uncovers a much more critical and actionable risk.

This is the ultimate objective of a modern security program: to move beyond the world of stale, point-in-time compliance audits and into a new paradigm of continuous assurance. 

Instead of relying on periodic snapshots, this model provides an always-on, verifiable, and actively protected environment that matches the speed and complexity of modern threats.

The path forward: From technical operators to business enablers

This transformation is a cultural evolution for the security team, and CISOs need their SOC heads to be the primary drivers of change. They must redefine the mission and value of their operations, motivating their teams to embrace a new, more strategic identity.

Actionable step 1: Leverage the mandate to secure executive buy-in

CISOs should use the DoW's announcement as a strategic tool to justify investment in modern security tools, prioritizing real-time cyber risk posture awareness. 

Security leaders can now present the CSRMC to their boards not as an internal recommendation, but as definitive proof that the institutional standard for security has evolved. The message is clear and backed by a major government entity: static, checklist-based security is obsolete because it leaves systems vulnerable and fails to meet modern operational needs. 

This external validation reframes the conversation, shifting the CISO's request from a budget issue to a strategic imperative to adopt a model of continuous assurance.

Actionable step 2: Redefine the mission

Your security team's mission must be reframed from that of manual operators to architects of an automated defense system. This new mission should be built upon the DoW’s ten foundational tenets, which provide a blueprint for a modern security program.

These tenets include:

• Automation: Enhance risk management by streamlining processes, reducing human error, and improving efficiency.
• Critical Controls: Adhere to identified critical controls to strengthen defenses and ensure operational continuity.
• Continuous Monitoring (CONMON), Control, and ATO: Provide real-time visibility into threats, vulnerabilities, and compliance gaps.
• DevSecOps: Integrate security and automation through continuous development, testing, and deployment to accelerate delivery safely.
• Cyber Survivability: Safeguard against threats and data breaches through measures like strong encryption, multi-factor authentication, and incident response planning.
• Training: Enhance role-based training to ensure consistent performance and cybersecurity knowledge.
• Enterprise & Inheritance: Share security controls and policies to reduce compliance burdens and increase adoption of proven frameworks.
• Operationalization: Strengthen defense against evolving threats through proactive monitoring and incident response.
• Reciprocity: Accept partners' security assessments to reuse system resources and share information.
• Cybersecurity Assessments: Establish assessment programs that integrate threat-informed testing with mission-aligned risk management.

To operationalize these tenets, security leaders should focus their team's efforts on four key cyber risk domains directly supporting the CSRMC's mission:

• External Attack Surface Management: This directly supports the mission by implementing Automation and Continuous Monitoring to gain real-time visibility into your external assets and vulnerabilities. Integrating threat-informed Cybersecurity Assessments ensures that defenses are validated against real-world adversary tactics.
• Supply chain risk management: This aligns with the framework's emphasis on a hardened environment by applying tenets like Enterprise & Inheritance and Critical Controls to your vendors. Continuously monitoring your suppliers for compliance gaps and vulnerabilities is a critical part of ensuring mission assurance across the entire ecosystem.
• Employee risk management: The mission to build a resilient organization is heavily dependent on the cybersecurity hygiene of your people. However, only applying the Training tenant to this risk domain is not characteristic of the holistic threat awareness encouraged by this model. To achieve true Cyber Survivability, employee cyber threat training should be implemented as part of a broader risk management strategy, unifying identity, behavior, and threat signals.
• Secure sharing of trust information: The DoW framework's mission extends beyond the organization's own walls. The tenets of Reciprocity and Enterprise & Inheritance are designed to build a collective defense between an organization and its external vendor network. Establishing a process for proactively sharing security posture information — such as completed questionnaires, risk assessments, and certifications — with existing and potential partners, your organization will play a pivotal role in building resilience within your sector of the global supply chain. 

Actionable step 3: Break down silos between tools and people

To effectively orient the business towards this model, security leaders must break down data silos to create a single, unified view of risk. This requires incorporating data streams from multiple areas of cyber risk — such as third-party vendor insights, user behaviors, and external threat intelligence — into one vendor risk management tool. 

By unifying these signals, security teams can generate "compounding intelligence" and translate complex technical data into clear insights. This ensures that stakeholders from all areas of the business are aligned with the company's cyber risk management initiatives, transforming security into a core pillar of operational resilience.

Actionable step 4: Cultivate the 'new security professional'

Finally, this new mission requires a new type of security professional. The traditional analyst must evolve into a business-savvy consultant who possesses the communication skills to effectively coach asset owners on risk. 

The goal is to develop proactive security partners who can embed security throughout the entire system lifecycle, a process mandated by the DoW's five-stage model. 

By integrating these security coaches from the initial Design Phase all the way through to Operations, organizations can ensure resilience is built-in from the start, not bolted on as an afterthought.

Defending at the speed of relevance

The Department of War's new framework is a watershed moment, not because its ideas are new, but because it signals the institutional adoption of the continuous, integrated, and automated approach the cybersecurity community has been working toward for years. It serves as a definitive validation that static, checklist-based security is obsolete and that a proactive, resilient posture is the only viable path forward.

This new era requires breaking down the silos between security data and business context to create powerful observability. The key to success is the fast, controlled distribution of actionable insights to asset owners. 

By delegating the responsibility for attack-surface reduction directly to business units, security transforms from a centralized guard into a distributed enabler. This is how modern organizations build true operational resilience and finally learn to meet threats at the speed of relevance.

How UpGuard can help

UpGuard’s Cyber Risk Posture Management (CRPM) platform helps organizations operationalize the principles of the DoW’s framework by replacing outdated, manual processes and breaking down data silos, creating dangerous attack surface blind spots.

Here's an overview of how UpGuard supports alignment across the ten core principles of the Cybersecurity Risk Management Construct:

To learn more, take a tour of UpGuard.