Personnel
CMMC's Arrington sues DOD to clear her name
Katie Arrington, who spearheaded the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program at the Department of Defense, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to spur the Pentagon into resolving her languishing personnel case.
Arrington's security clearance was suspended on May 11 according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. One day after the clearance suspension, Arrington was placed into paid, non-duty status.
According to the complaint, the memorandum suspending Arrington's clearance stated that the action "is being taken as a result of a reported unauthorized disclosure of classified information and subsequent removal of access" by the National Security Agency.
Since then, Arrington has been unable to fulfill her duties as chief information security officer for acquisition and sustainment. Most prominent among these duties is the management of the CMMC program, which is designed to compel compliance with a strict cybersecurity regime among defense contractors. The program has proved controversial, especially among small businesses, because of concerns about costs.
The lawsuit alleges that the move to sideline Arrington "was designed to interfere" with the running of CMMC, "which NSA did not support."
Additionally, Arrington's political background as an elected Republican state representative in South Carolina and as a 2018 candidate for Congress endorsed by then-President Donald Trump is not winning her friends in the Pentagon, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that "certain high-ranking DOD officials" are "using the NSA's decision as a pretext to remove her."
The lawsuit also points to "unknown individuals within ..
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