1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |FY 2019 NDAA – Cyber Focus

FY 2019 NDAA – Cyber Focus

Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.20.18

The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes a robust set of cybersecurity provisions impacting the Defense Industrial Base, including:

  • Encouraging federal agencies to avoid using lowest price technically acceptable source selection criteria in procurements predominately for the acquisition of information technology and cybersecurity services.
  • Establishing a pilot program to oversee Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) handled by contractors with foreign ownership, control, or influence.
  • Requiring DoD to notify Congress of data breaches involving significant losses of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or other forms of CUI.
  • Encouraging DoD and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to assist small businesses in the Defense Industrial Supply Chain by enhancing cyber threat awareness and training, and helping to conduct voluntary cybersecurity self-assessments.
  • Requiring DoD to obtain disclosures from vendors regarding foreign government access to products or source codes, before acquiring their cybersecurity or information technology products and services.

Contacts

Insights

Client Alert | 4 min read | 10.30.26

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: GAO Sustains Protest Where Agency Tried to Fix PIA Violation with a Second PIA Violation

Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”...