F093: Cyber & Compliance for The Fabrication Industry: Defending the Digital Shop

Securing Defense Contracts Under CMMC 2.0

For manufacturers serving the Defense Industrial Base, CMMC 2.0 directly impacts contract eligibility, revenue continuity, and supply chain stability. Only companies who obtain the required certification levels will be permitted to compete for and retain defense contracts. This session is designed to help organizations respond strategically and confidently. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of how CMMC affects operational environments and how to build a practical path to certification without disrupting operations.

Learning Objectives:

By attending this session, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the CMMC 2.0 Framework and implications for defense contractors and subcontractors.
2. Evaluate how CMMC requirements affect IT, OT, supply chains, and third-party relationships.
3. Identify readiness gaps and build a phased path to certification.

In the metal fabrication industry, precision is everything. As we digitize our shops—moving from manual processes to cloud-integrated ERPs and automated nesting software—we rely on Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to protect our business. However, a new breed of Adversary-in-the-Middle (AiTM) attacks is quietly making those protections obsolete. By using real-time reverse proxies, attackers are no longer "cracking" passwords; they are hijacking active session tokens to walk into your management portals as "trusted users"—bypassing MFA entirely.

For a fabrication shop, a hijacked session is a direct threat to the bottom line. It can lead to the unauthorized alteration of high-value material orders, the theft of proprietary CAD files, or the diversion of massive vendor payments through Business Email Compromise (BEC). In this session, we move beyond technical jargon to show how these "invisible" attacks work and provide a roadmap for securing the "Last Mile"—the point where your team interacts with the web.