RFI | The Contracting Education Academy

August 15, 2019 By AMK

DHS building a contract to manage all its cybersecurity operations centers

The single contract will likely have multiple awardees, each capable of managing the entirety of operations at each of the department’s 17 security centers.

The Homeland Security Department is building a contract vehicle of vendors able to manage its 17 unclassified security operations centers—the cybersecurity hubs for the government’s central cybersecurity agency.

The agency issued a request for information Aug. 7th outlining its tentative acquisition strategy and asking for feedback from industry on capabilities and approach to spinning up additional resources in times of crisis, such as during a large-scale cyberattack.

“The Department of Homeland Security has a complex and demanding mission,” the notice on FedBizOpps reads. “To assist in meeting that mission, DHS needs robust and effective information systems. It also needs to protect those systems from cyber threats posed by nation-states and criminal enterprises.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2019/08/dhs-building-contract-manage-all-its-cybersecurity-operations-centers/159032/

March 5, 2019 By AMK

Should ICE use GSA Schedules for agile development — or go its own way?

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say the agency has been doing well adopting agile development practices and wants to keep that going once its current suite of contracts expire.

The big question: Should ICE follow Homeland Security Department headquarters in looking to pre-established contracts through the General Services Administration or build its own vehicle?

ICE has been contracting for its agile development needs with vendors off of Homeland Security’s Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions, or EAGLE II. When that vehicle expires in 2020, ICE will need a new pool of vendors.

In December, DHS Chief Procurement Officer Soraya Correa announced the third iteration of EAGLE, dubbed EAGLE Next Gen, will be more of a strategy than a contract. Correa told Homeland Security components once EAGLE II expires, the agency will push offices toward using six governmentwide acquisition contracts, or GWACS: GSA’s Alliant 2 and Alliant 2 Small Business, 8(a) STARS II and VETS 2, and the National Institutes of Health’s CIO-SP3 and CIO-SP3 Small Business.

However, Correa also left additional options open, including specific contracts for unique mission areas.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/02/should-ice-use-gsa-schedules-agile-development-or-go-its-own-way/155145/

February 22, 2019 By AMK

Bots could be climbing another rung on the workforce ladder

Bots have been making some headway in the government workforce, performing the kinds of mundane, clerical, routine tasks that make the people who do them feel less than human.

But robotic systems may soon take it up a notch, gaining new responsibilities with basic but essential procurement duties.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently issued a request for information looking for robotics and intelligent process automation applications in the commercial sector. The robots would need to perform tasks such as evaluating proposals, automating market research, performing cost and price analyses, carrying out modification actions, and issuing price negotiation memoranda. The Pentagon’s top research arm isn’t proposing that robots run the show or take people’s jobs, but it is talking about the kind of jobs that might move robots up a theoretical pay grade from what they’ve been doing.

DARPA said it wants to look into the possibility of using the “operational efficiency and functional capabilities” of such systems to perform “routine administrative tasks and document generation in the government procurement process.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.governmentciomedia.com/bots-could-be-climbing-another-rung-workforce-ladder

January 21, 2019 By AMK

Air Force Academy’s CyberWorx wants partners to help with outreach, tech transfer

The Air Force Academy’s cyber research and innovation arm is looking for a private-sector partner to help invigorate its outreach and technology transfer efforts.

The academy’s CyberWorx released a request for information Thursday seeking a partner that can boost the center’s efforts to engage industry—particularly small businesses—and academia in development of innovative cyber tools and improve the technology transfer process between the academy and private sector, in both directions.

CyberWorx was stood up in late 2016 to act as “a public-private design center focused on cyber capability that melds AF, academic and industry expertise with state of the art technology and innovative thinking to solve wicked operational problems,” according to the academy.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/01/air-force-academys-cyberworx-wants-partners-help-outreach-tech-transfer/154257/

June 5, 2018 By AMK

GSA wants to modernize how the government buys cybersecurity services

The government’s main contracting agency wants to make it easier for federal and state agencies to quickly acquire a broader array of cybersecurity services, according to contracting documents released this week.

The General Services Administration is interested in updating the list of “highly adaptive cybersecurity services” it offers on its IT Schedule 70, according to the request for information.

GSA schedules are essentially lists of pre-vetted contractors that agencies can buy particular goods and services from without going through their own lengthy vetting processes.

Currently, the highly adaptive cybersecurity services, or HACS, list includes penetration testing, incident response, cyber hunt (essentially hunting for adversaries you fear may already be inside your systems), and risk and vulnerability assessments.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2018/05/gsa-wants-modernize-how-government-buys-cybersecurity-services/148491/

The single contract will likely have multiple awardees, each capable of managing the entirety of operations at each of the department’s 17 security centers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say the agency has been doing well adopting agile development practices and wants to keep that going once its current suite of contracts expire.

Bots have been making some headway in the government workforce, performing the kinds of mundane, clerical, routine tasks that make the people who do them feel less than human.

But robotic systems may soon take it up a notch, gaining new responsibilities with basic but essential procurement duties.

The government’s main contracting agency wants to make it easier for federal and state agencies to quickly acquire a broader array of cybersecurity services, according to contracting documents released this week.

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