New proposed rule requires basic security for contractors: DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to add a new subpart and contract clause for the basic safeguarding of contractor information systems that contain information provided by or generated for the Government (other than public information) that will be resident on or transiting through contractor information systems. The new rule requires that federal contracts over $100,000 will have to include a clause requiring the contractor to implement basic data security protections for any non-public data provided to the contractor by the federal government or generated by the contractor for the government. Adoption of the rule would mean that any non-public information passing through a contractor’s information system from the government would have to be secured from unauthorized access. Those contractors who work in the classified and national security space have had to address similar requirements for a long time but this is the first I’ve seen such a broad reaching measure, potentially extend to contractors of all sizes. Comments are being accepted through October 23rd at www.regulations.gov and you can read the original notice in the Federal Register.
U.S. House Releases Six-Month Continuing Resolution: As we approach the end of the government fiscal year, not a single annual appropriations bill to fund government operations beyond September 30th has been signed into law and with the looming election, there is not much chance of that changing. This week, to make sure the government is funded beyond the end of this month, the House Appropriations Committee introduced a six-month continuing resolution, funding the government at $1.047 trillion. The bill keeps the government funded through March 27, 2013. See the full summary.
Update on Cloud Brokerage RFI: Late last week, with the deadline for submissions looming and many government contractors still with an interest in weighing in on the RFI, but apparently not quite ready, GSA stepped in and extended the deadline for comments until September 21st. SIIA will be weighing in on this important issue, as will a number of our members. Read more about it.
Federal CIO Council and DHS to Conduct Survey on IT Workforce and Cyber: DHS announced earlier this week that it has partnered with the CIO Council to conduct a survey on cybersecurity and the IT workforce to get a better sense of what skills they have and what are needed. The survey is anonymous and open to all federal employees with IT responsibilities. It’ll go live sometime in October. Read more from Nextgov.
Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.