Page 10 - FCW, Nov/Dec 2017

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IG: OPM still
plagued by cyber
weaknesses
More than two years after the Of ce of Personnel Management suffered a data breach that exposed more than 20 million records, the agency still falls short when it comes to managing security and meeting key requirements, according to an inspector general report.
The report states that OPM’s overall cybersecurity posture has improved, but information security teams continue to struggle with the training, hiring and managment structure. And despite pockets of improvements, OPM has a growing pile of unful lled recommendations.
The report also responds to complaints that the intense oversight is creating “audit fatigue” and making it dif cult for OPM employees to enact improvements.
“Although we agree that audits can be a strain on resources, we believe that the primary cause of OPM’s ‘audit fatigue’ is the \[Of ce of the CIO\] staff’s inability to maintain complete, detailed and organized documentation,” the report states.
It also notes that the IG’s staff “wasted over 600 hours auditing useless and irrelevant information” because of the staff’s inability to supply the requested documentation.
“OPM...appears to be generally unprepared to respond to routine audit requests,” the report states.
The report includes 39 recommen- dations, and OPM officials said they would address some of them through the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program. Speci cally, OPM will use CDM to analyze its identity, credential and access management strategy and to improve its endpoint management and software inventory.
— Ben Berliner
2.4%
is the proposed pay raise for military personnel in scal 2018
8 November/December 2017 FCW.COM
Why GAO upheld AT&T’s protest of the Census Bureau’s mobile deal
The Census Bureau made several key missteps in its decision to award a multimillion-dollar mobile device contract for the 2020 population count, according to the Government Accountability Of ce.
In a detailed account of its bid- protest decision, GAO said the Census Bureau held improper and unequal discussions with industry bidders, failed to adequately document its decision and ultimately made an award that was possibly biased.
The bureau selected CDW-G over AT&T as the mobile device provider for its device-as-a-service contract, which would supply canvassers with mobile devices and related services for the 2020 count.
AT&T protested the award, and in October, GAO sustained the protest. CDW-G’s proposal came with a $283 million price tag; AT&T’s was $191 million. Information on the other differences between the contracts was redacted.
According to the protest, CDW-G was speci cally asked in its technical exchange how the company planned to ensure that pre-negotiated rates with
cellular carriers are unbiased. However, AT&T was never asked about bias in its technical exchange.
“To the extent the agency was concerned with the potential bias in each offeror’s approach and raised bias with CDW-G, it was obligated to similarly raise this concept with AT&T,” wrote GAO General Counsel Susan Poling. “Here, the record as a whole demonstrates the impropriety in the conduct of discussions.”
Census is not required to accept GAO’s decision.
Al Fontenot, assistant director of the Decennial Census Programs Directorate, said the bureau is still examining its options, which include accepting GAO’s ruling and rebidding the contract or rejecting it and risking the possibility of a lawsuit from AT&T in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
If the bureau cannot resolve the decision in time to receive the contracted devices for the end-to-end test in 2018, Fontenot said Census has a contingency plan in place to ensure it has devices available as a substitute.
— Adam Mazmanian
IT modernization funding advances through Congress
The Modernizing Government Tech- nology Act continued its slow churn through Congress when the provi- sions for IT modernization capital funds made it out of a House/Senate conference in early November as part of the 2018 National Defense Autho- rization Act.
The massive defense funding bill totals $700 billion — about $26 billion more than the Trump administration’s request. The bill would also raise the
spending cap set by the Budget Con- trol Act of 2011. Legislation lifting the cap would have to pass before the bill can go forward for another round of votes on the nal package in the House and Senate.
The NDAA also includes a procure- ment measure designed to make it easier for defense of cials to buy off- the-shelf goods without going through drawn-out acquisition plans.
— Derek B. Johnson