From: FCW| Opinion
By Brian D. Miller
***
Already, the Defense Department has imposed requirements to protect “”unclassified controlled technical information”,” and it recently expanded these obligations via interim rules with immediate effect. The National Archives and Records Administration is about to complete its new regulation to better protect sensitive but unclassified federal information. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued new cyber protection standards intended for commercial companies. And the General Services Administration stands poised to issue new rules for schedule holders.
We are going to see new cyber protection requirements in many solicitations and contract modifications. And an unwary contractor might become a casualty when it certifies compliance, even implicitly, with “all IT security standards.” For example, the second draft request for proposals for GSA’s Alliant 2 subjects contractors to “all ordering activity IT security standards … and government wide laws or regulation applicable to the protection of government wide information security.” How can a contractor certify before it knows what “sensitive data and information” will be part of the performance of a task order? Or even what all the standards will be? Yet if a contractor does not certify or impliedly certify, it may lose the chance to compete for award.
Leave a Reply