Carbide’s 2024 Year in Review – A Year of Transformation and Growth in Compliance

As 2024 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on an incredible year at Carbide. From launching powerful new features to refining our platform based on customer feedback, each improvement we made was designed to help you streamline compliance and enhance your security posture. Here’s a look at our journey this past year and the milestones that marked 2024 as a transformative year for Carbide and our customers.

Features and Upgrades We Released in 2024

Vulnerability Scanning Tool: Proactive Risk Management Made Simple

Staying on top of vulnerabilities is crucial to a strong security posture. Our new Vulnerability Scanning Tool, launched this year, helps you identify, manage, and remediate vulnerabilities seamlessly. Here’s what makes it a must-have:

• Automated Scans: Run scans every 7 days, with detailed reports sent straight to your inbox.
• Role Access: Administrators can delegate permissions, control access, and manage email digest settings.
• Comprehensive Reporting: Track vulnerabilities by status (open, overdue, fixed) and get a complete view with exportable reports.

👉 See the Vulnerability Scanning Tool in action.

Integration Evidence Generation: Simplify Compliance Reporting

One of our most powerful new features, Integration Evidence Generation, streamlines evidence collection across Carbide’s 100+ integrations. This tool enables you to meet compliance requirements with ease and precision. Here’s how it helps:

• Customizable Configurations: Define exactly what data you need, with filters for date ranges, specific projects, and more.
• Automated Document Generation: Schedule evidence generation reports, set your preferred format, and let Carbide handle the rest.
• Live Data Preview: Ensure accuracy by previewing data before finalizing reports, saving time on adjustments.

👉 See it in action here.

Templates Feature: Revolutionizing Document Creation and Policy Implementation

Our new Templates feature was designed to help you create compliant, professional documentation faster. With pre-loaded and customizable templates, you’ll have everything you need to streamline your workflows. Key benefits include:

• Extensive Template Library: Choose from 27 ready-to-use templates that meet industry security standards.
• Easy Customization: Adapt templates to fit your organization’s branding and compliance needs.
• Seamless Integration with Tasks: Attach templates to relevant tasks for a cohesive, organized workflow.

👉 See the Templates feature in action.

The Editor Update

One of our biggest releases this year, the new Carbide Editor, was built to make content creation easier and more intuitive than ever. This comprehensive tool supports you in creating polished, compliant documents with ease. Some highlights include:

• Text Formatting Tools: Customize font styles, sizes, colors, and more to give your documents a professional look.
• Table and List Features: Organize information with adjustable tables, bulleted lists, and checkbox lists to improve readability.
• Embedded Media Support: Drag and drop images or embed videos from platforms like YouTube and Vimeo directly into your content.
• AI-Powered Assistance: Access AI-driven tools to complete, rephrase, summarize, or simplify text, helping you craft high-quality documents in record time.

Tags Feature: Organize and Prioritize Your Workflows

We introduced the Tags feature to bring clarity and organization to your security program. With Tags, you can easily categorize, track, and prioritize tasks, policies, and other elements within the Carbide platform. Here’s how it helps:

• Enhanced Organization: Group related items under custom tags, making it simple to locate and manage critical assets.
• Filtering Capabilities: Filter by tags to find specific policies, tasks, or documents, streamlining your workflows.
• User Access Control: Control who can create, view, and edit tags based on user roles, maintaining security and clarity.

Asset and Vendors

This year, Carbide elevated access management with significant upgrades to our Assets and Vendors Modules. These tools empower organizations to centralize and streamline the management of critical assets, vendor relationships, and access permissions. Highlights include the ability to:

• Automate Recurring Access Reviews: Set review cadences for assets and vendors to maintain up-to-date security oversight.
• Simplify Access Assignments: Add or manage user permissions directly from the platform or via bulk CSV imports.
• Enhance Accountability: Create and track remediation tasks for identified access issues, ensuring compliance and security.
• Generate Detailed Reports: A new report under the Documents section provides insights into assets and vendors, offering a comprehensive view for audits and compliance.
• Leverage Bulk Actions: Perform bulk updates to save time on when managing tasks across multiple assets and vendors simultaneously.

Risk Assessment Module 2.0: Upgraded Risk Management Capabilities

Our Risk Assessment Module 2.0 release marked a major milestone this year, bringing enhanced flexibility and customization to risk management. This upgrade empowers you to assess, evaluate, and treat risks more effectively. Here’s what’s new:

• Asset and Vendor Catalog Integration: Connect your risk assessments to a comprehensive asset catalog, enabling better risk mapping.
• Customizable Threat Library: Tailor threat descriptions to match your organization’s unique needs, making assessments more actionable.
• Bulk Actions & Approvals: Streamline processes by editing multiple threats at once and simplifying approval workflows.
• Detailed Reporting: Easily export risk assessments for compliance audits or internal reporting, ensuring transparency.

Framework Spotlight: CMMC 2.0 – Simplifying Compliance for the U.S. Defense Industry

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense introduced CMMC 2.0, a streamlined update to the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) framework. This revision simplifies compliance requirements for contractors and suppliers within the defense supply chain, reducing the certification levels and aligning more closely with existing standards like NIST 800-171 and NIST 800-172. CMMC 2.0 provides a clearer, more achievable path to compliance for organizations handling federal contract information and controlled unclassified information.

Carbide’s platform supports CMMC 2.0 compliance by offering tools and guidance to help companies navigate these new requirements. Our CMMC Level 1 Assessment Tool allows organizations to assess their readiness, identify compliance gaps, and create actionable plans.

For companies seeking higher levels of certification, CMMC 2.0 mandates third-party assessments for certain levels, adding an extra layer of oversight. Carbide’s advisory team is ready to assist in preparing for these assessments, helping you map out your CMMC 2.0 compliance plan, document how you handle CUI and FCI, and develop a Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) to address any gaps.

Looking Forward to 2025

As we close out 2024, we’re excited about what lies ahead. Each feature and upgrade we launched this year was designed with your feedback in mind, helping us continue our mission to make security and compliance achievable for every organization. We’re grateful for the trust you place in Carbide, and we look forward to supporting you in 2025 with more innovation, support, and expertise.

If you’d like to explore any of these updates further, contact us for a free consultation or to see Carbide in action with a personalized demo. Let’s start 2025 strong!