Homeland Security | The Contracting Education Academy

November 6, 2018 By AMK

Cyber supply chain task force to meet soon

A task force focused on reducing cybersecurity risks in the nation’s technology and communications supply chain will meet for the first time in the next few weeks, the Homeland Security Department announced last week.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the task force’s creation during a cyber conference in New York in July during which she also announced the creation of a new Homeland Security division, the National Cyber Risk Management Center, focused on long-range cyber issues.

The task force will be chaired by private sector leaders but will be sponsored by the risk management center, according to a Homeland Security news release.

The task force will focus on government and industry supply chains and criminal and nation-state hacker efforts to compromise contractors and subcontractors deep within those supply chains, the department said.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2018/10/cyber-supply-chain-task-force-meet-soon/152429/

October 31, 2018 By AMK

DHS to use federal procurement to further reduce risks to the supply chain

The Homeland Security Department’s initiatives over the past year to address supply chain risks aren’t even close to hitting a crescendo. But the pace and volume of the drumbeat is distinctly mounting.

If the efforts to ban Kaspersky Lab, ZTE and Huawei products were just the prelude to the symphony, then the National Risk Management Center’s initial sprint topics, the business due diligence request for information and the latest effort to use the power of federal procurement are the opening sonata.

“There is a growing awareness and understanding to this issue. Our biggest challenge today is not having a national strategy around it while other countries do,” said Jennifer Bisceglie, president and CEO of Interos Solutions, which provides risk assessment services. “Until we have a national strategy, you will have pop up policies or programs or studies, like the one from MITRE. The time is beyond here to have a national strategy.”

The White House’s National Cyber Strategy gave a brief mention to supply chain risk management, saying the government should “improve awareness of supply chain threats and reduce duplicative supply chain activities within the United States government, including by creating a supply chain risk assessment shared service.” But it offered no specific details or initiatives.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2018/10/dhs-to-use-federal-procurement-to-further-reduce-risks-to-the-supply-chain/

October 10, 2018 By AMK

Senate agrees federal cybersecurity office should have name to match

The lead office governmentwide for handling cybersecurity issues in the public and private sector was finally granted something officials had long sought: actually including “cybersecurity” in the office’s name.

Wednesday, Senate lawmakers passed a long-awaited bill to rename the Homeland Security Department’s point office for cybersecurity, the National Protection and Programs Directorate, to something more fitting. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2017—which passed by unanimous consent—would change the office’s title to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA.

As the name suggests, the office will lead efforts on cybersecurity of federal networks and critical infrastructure and coordinating between the government and private sector. The legislation also gives the office purview over “DHS’s responsibilities concerning chemical facilities antiterrorism standards.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2018/10/senate-agrees-federal-cybersecurity-office-should-have-name-match/151791/

March 12, 2018 By AMK

ICE broke contracting rules in establishing its largest detention facility

The nation’s largest immigrant detention facility was procured improperly, according to a watchdog report, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2014 using an existing agreement with a town in Arizona as a vehicle to establish the center 900 miles away in Texas.

Since 2014, ICE has spent $438,000 annually for Eloy, Ariz., to serve solely as a middleman for a 2,400-bed detention facility in Dilley, Texas, according to the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general. The agency first contracted with the city of Eloy in 2006 to establish the Eloy Detention Center, which the city subcontracted to a company called CCA. ICE reached the agreement with Eloy through a process known as an intergovernmental service agreement, or IGSA.

After an influx of unaccompanied minors and families illegally crossed the border in 2014, ICE looked to boost its detention capacity in south Texas. The agency asked CCA and another contractor to submit proposals for a facility, but only CCA responded. The contractor negotiated directly with ICE on the provisions of the agreement. Rather than create a new contract, ICE went to the city of Eloy and requested that it modify its IGSA to enable CCA to run the South Texas Family Residential Center. The Eloy City Council gave its consent, and the agreement was altered. The provision was set to expire in October 2016, but ICE extended it until 2021.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/oversight/2018/02/ice-broke-contracting-rules-establishing-its-largest-detention-facility/146278

December 20, 2017 By AMK

Homeland Security’s ‘innovation station’

A variety of systems cultivated under a Homeland Security rapid development program may be fielded late next year, bearing the first major fruits of the 2-year-old effort.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) kicked off its Silicon Valley Innovation Program in 2015 in an attempt to dramatically reduce the time to develop and deploy technology. The program focuses on all areas of the DHS mission, including information technology, finance, energy, health and first responders.

Program officials work largely with smaller companies, often startups that do not normally collaborate with the government. The businesses, in many cases, already have products and commercial customers, but their technologies need to be further developed and adapted to suit DHS needs.

“We actually have [entrepreneurs] whose venture capitalists have told them not to work with government because it’s too slow,” reports Melissa Ho, managing director of the DHS Silicon Valley Innovation Programs Office. But now, she says, startups want to work with the DHS “because we’re a customer that can validate their technology and because we have a way of contracting with them faster.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.afcea.org/content/homeland-securitys-innovation-station

A task force focused on reducing cybersecurity risks in the nation’s technology and communications supply chain will meet for the first time in the next few weeks, the Homeland Security Department announced last week.

The Homeland Security Department’s initiatives over the past year to address supply chain risks aren’t even close to hitting a crescendo. But the pace and volume of the drumbeat is distinctly mounting.

The lead office governmentwide for handling cybersecurity issues in the public and private sector was finally granted something officials had long sought: actually including “cybersecurity” in the office’s name.

The nation’s largest immigrant detention facility was procured improperly, according to a watchdog report, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2014 using an existing agreement with a town in Arizona as a vehicle to establish the center 900 miles away in Texas.

A variety of systems cultivated under a Homeland Security rapid development program may be fielded late next year, bearing the first major fruits of the 2-year-old effort.

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