CIA | The Contracting Education Academy

August 23, 2018 By cs

Someone is waging a secret war to undermine the Pentagon’s huge cloud contract

As some of the biggest U.S. technology companies have lined up to bid on the $10 billion contract to create a massive Pentagon cloud computing network, the behind-the-scenes war to win it has turned ugly.

In the past several months, a private investigative firm has been shopping around to Washington reporters a 100-plus-page dossier raising the specter of corruption on the part of senior Defense Department and private company officials in the cloud contract competition. But at least some of the dossier’s conclusions do not stand up to close scrutiny.

The dossier insinuates that a top aide to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis worked with Mattis and others to steer the contracting process to favor Amazon Web Services, or AWS—and enrich the aide. The aim of the dossier seems clear: to prevent the deal from going solely to AWS, the odds-on favorite in part because it operates the CIA’s classified commercial cloud. Far less clear, however, is who backed its creation and distribution.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/08/someone-waging-secret-war-undermine-pentagons-huge-cloud-contract/150684/

December 4, 2017 By cs

The ‘huge’ hole in the government’s Russian software ban

The Trump administration’s order barring certain Russian software from government networks doesn’t fully cover one troubling vulnerability — the teeming ranks of government contractors.

That omission could leave open gateways for hackers looking to pilfer government secrets, cybersecurity specialists warn, something that has reportedly happened in recent years with contractors from the CIA and the NSA. But legal experts say the government has only limited ability to require contractors to uproot Kaspersky Lab’s products from their computers.

“It’s a huge area of risk, especially with some of the recent breaches at the NSA and the CIA where it was clear that these contractors were the source of it,” said Trevor Rudolph, the former head of an OMB team that helps agencies improve their cyber defenses.

Matt Keller, who advises government clients on digital security programs as a vice president at GuidePoint, dubbed the issue a “moderate to high risk” for federal agencies.

It’s impossible to quantify the risk exactly, but hundreds of thousands of federal contractors hold top secret clearances.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/24/the-huge-hole-in-the-governments-russian-software-ban-259473

November 10, 2017 By cs

Where should agencies look for innovation?

Startups and government may sound like an unlikely pairing. But according to intelligence workers, they’re the perfect match when it comes to innovation.

“Innovation is really happening down at the lower levels at the startup companies,” said John Kammerer, the National Security Agency’s technical director of high performance computing solutions, during a Nov. 2 panel discussion at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference in Washington, D.C.

Tech moves fast, Kammerer said, and while the incumbent companies still have a lot to offer in the way of government contracts, they too are leaning on startups to develop components. The proof, he added, is when the traditional big government contractors scoop up emerging companies.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2017/11/03/nsa-innovation-startups.aspx

November 26, 2013 By cs

Federal judge: IBM had ‘no substantial chance’ of winning CIA cloud contract

IBM comes under stark judgment in the Court of Federal Claims decision regarding the company’s protest against the CIA’s February award to Amazon Web Services of a long-term cloud computing contract.

In a redacted decision (.pdf) posted online Nov. 8, Judge Thomas Wheeler says IBM manipulated its pricing proposal to create a bid protest issue and dismisses IBM arguments that it didn’t do so with the conclusion that “the Court does not see any other explanation for IBM’s final pricing strategy.” The contract is worth up to $600 million in its first four years and could potentially last a decade.

The Government Accountability Office’s decision to uphold IBM’s protest also comes under criticism, with Wheeler stating that the GAO’s June decision to sustain in part the protest lacked a rational basis and that IBM lacked standing to protest, since its proposal had no substantial chance of winning the award in the first place. Among other factors, IBM offered a low initial price to the CIA while including a contract clause in its proposal calling for negotiation of higher prices in later years.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/federal-judge-ibm-had-no-substantial-chance-winning-cia-cloud-contract/2013-11-10

September 5, 2013 By cs

AWS disputes GAO bid protest favoring IBM in CIA cloud computing contract

Amazon Web Services is challenging in the Court of Federal Claims the Government Accountability Office’s June bid protest decision overturning its win of a CIA cloud services contract worth up to $600 million over 4 years, with additional options.

In a redacted complaint unsealed Aug. 20, Amazon attorneys from the firm of Arnold & Porter argue that the GAO arrived at the wrong conclusions surrounding two points from a protest brought by IBM, which lost out to AWS on the CIA contract. Following the GAO’s decision, the CIA reopened discussions with offerors and called for new proposals due by Aug. 16; Amazon first filed its complaint on July 24.

In its decision, the GAO said IBM was correct that the CIA misevaluated a part of its pricing proposal. In its suit, AWS accuses IBM of “seeking to exploit a perceived ambiguity in the instructions” and the GAO of jettisoning established law to recharacterize IBM’s protest as a matter of price evaluation rather than the evaluation criteria.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/aws-disputes-gao-bid-protest-favoring-ibm-cia-cloud-computing-contract/2013-08-28

As some of the biggest U.S. technology companies have lined up to bid on the $10 billion contract to create a massive Pentagon cloud computing network, the behind-the-scenes war to win it has turned ugly.

The Trump administration’s order barring certain Russian software from government networks doesn’t fully cover one troubling vulnerability — the teeming ranks of government contractors.

Startups and government may sound like an unlikely pairing. But according to intelligence workers, they’re the perfect match when it comes to innovation.

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