General Overview:

When it comes to defense cybersecurity, many companies mistakenly treat all cybersecurity requirements as one unified category. In reality, there are two distinct buckets—IT security and application/product security—each with its own compliance frameworks and scope. This distinction is critical because conflating the two leads to audit failures, unnecessary costs, and/or certification delays.

IT security refers to common cybersecurity requirements that apply across nearly every business, regardless of industry. Examples of components that fall under this category include email servers, computers, wifi networks, accounting software, etc. These are general systems that are common when you think of a standard business.

Application or product security requirements are specific to what your business builds or delivers, rather than internal systems. For example, if you’re a software company building AI tools for the military, your day-to-day IT systems would fall under one set of requirements. But the AI software itself—along with the servers, databases, and environments that support it—would be governed by a separate set of cybersecurity controls. Similarly, if you’re building an aircraft for the military, your corporate IT systems are distinct from the cybersecurity protections needed on the aircraft itself. The embedded firmware, onboard networks, and communication systems (such as radios and networks) must meet specialized security standards aligned with different frameworks.