The General Services Administration is making cybersecurity services simpler for federal acquisition professionals to order via a special item number on the Schedule 70 IT acquisition vehicle.
The closest thing to a federal IT report card was released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The news was not good.
The deadline for defense contractors and subcontractors to implement the information security requirements listed in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171 has come and gone. There are more than 100 information security requirements in NIST 800-171, and it is a good bet that many smaller companies without ample IT resources fall into the category of: “We missed the deadline… what now?”
Despite general agreement the Modernizing Government Technology Act was a win for federal IT, just nine projects were initially submitted for money from the central IT fund the law created.
Source: Why more agencies aren’t applying for TMF funds — FCW
The drivers for modernizing federal IT systems are multiplying. From the escalation in citizen expectations to the incoming mandates from the legislative and executive branch, there is a real and emerging momentum. This is most evident in the recently enacted Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017, which helps bridge the budget gaps that have stifled recent modernization efforts. The challenge now facing agency CIOs is that dedicated MGT funding is insufficient to fully address the decades of “technical debt” that has accumulated in federal systems, despite the heightened expectations prompted by the law’s passage.
When interviewing non-traditional IT vendors in the federal marketplace for a series of blogs, I asked how they decided what agencies to target. A common answer was that they chose based on whether a sympathetic contracting officer was present. So — not the least to provide tips to contracting folks who want to encourage new vendors entering the marketplace — I decided to talk to two of the contracting officials the new vendors mentioned to me: Mark Junda of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Dan Levenson of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to find out what they did to encourage new vendors.
Source: Meet the contracting folks who are encouraging new IT vendors — FCW
Acquisition reform will take more than creative regulatory workarounds if the Defense Department is going to truly modernize and advance, said Air Force Materiel Commander Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski.
Source: Why acquisition reform is about more than OTAs — FCW
Vendors are losing money while waiting for clearances from the Department of Homeland Security, representatives of contracting firms told a panel of lawmakers at a Feb. 27 hearing.
As lawmakers and regulators weigh increased action on the rules and laws governing data breach disclosures, a survey of more than 1,200 federal contractors found a significant number of firms have suffered breaches since 2016.
Source: How vulnerable are contractors when it comes to data breaches? — FCW
In early December, the General Services Administration released a list of 80 companies it intended to name as winners of the $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business contract.
Source: Alliant 2 Small Business bogged down by size standard appeals — FCW
