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CDM program to get facelift to fix problems with initial $6 billion contract

Homeland Security Department officials hailed the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program in August 2013 when it and the General Services Administration awarded the $6 billion contract as a network security program that would provide a “standard measure of protection across government within three years.”

Here we are nearly four years later and CDM is a lot harder than initially thought and most agencies remain in Phase 1 of the program. The challenges can be traced to a host of reasons, from poor agency planning because they didn’t know all the devices and end-points on their networks, to a contract vehicle that wasn’t flexible enough, to bid protests that have delayed nearly every award.

But before anyone calls CDM a failure or even a lost opportunity, GSA and DHS deserve a ton of credit for doing something few agencies publicly do — recognize the deficiencies of their program and developing a plan to fix them going forward.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2017/03/cdm-program-get-facelift-fix-problems-initial-6b-contract/

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Major departments seek continuous monitoring acquisition independence from DHS

Some federal agencies are choosing to buy continuous monitoring tools independently of the Homeland Security Department’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program despite forfeiting DHS procurement money for those tools when doing so.

Those agencies have sought and received a “delegation of procurement authority” from the CDM program. That means they are able to use the blanket purchase agreements for security tools set up by GSA for the CDM program. But, if they exercise the delegation by buying tools themselves rather than through program office, they do it “with their own money,” said Jim Piché, a GSA acquisition manager newly appointed to overseeing the blanket purchase agreements.

A GSA spokeswoman said the agency won’t release a list of the agencies that received a delegation.Piché spoke Wednesday during a Washington, D.C. industry-sponsored panel on the program.

An industry source says agencies with a delegation include the departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Justice and Veterans Affairs.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/major-departments-seek-continuous-monitoring-acquisition-independence-dhs/2014-03-19

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