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New standards coming for ISAOs
A group charged with developing standards for information sharing announced on Nov. 1 that it would soon release a draft plan for establishing a voluntary self- certification process and criteria for information sharing and analysis organizations.
Executive Director Greg White said the ISAO Standards Organization is concerned that there are little to no standards to ensure that the data ISAOs share is high-quality and trustworthy. He made the comments at the International Information Sharing Conference in Washington.
“Right now, anybody who wants to can call themselves an \[information sharing and analysis center\] or an ISAO, and there’s nothing stopping them,” White said.
He described the plan as skeletal and said the organization will be soliciting feedback from the public and stakeholder organizations.
Detailed criteria for the draft plan will be drawn in part from the organization’s recent report on foundational services and capabilities for ISAOs, and White told FCW that the group is focusing in particular on the sections related to collection, analysis and dissemination of information.
The ISAO Standards Organization was established in 2015 under an Obama administration executive order. Members were selected by the Department of Homeland Security to establish standards for organizations that share cybersecurity information. The group consists of of cials from the University of Texas at San Antonio, LMI and the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center.
50-75% of agencies’ Data Act submissions were fully consistent with source information, GAO found
Judge rules against protestor on VA/Cerner contract
— Derek B. Johnson
The vendor that challenged Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin’s decision to award a planned multibillion-dollar electronic health record contract to Cerner could not have credibly competed for the contract, a federal judge has ruled.
In a recently unsealed decision, Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that CliniComp lacked the experience with a contract of the size and scope of VA’s EHR system.
VA plans to use Cerner’s system to replace its homegrown VistA EHR at an estimated 1,600 facilities nationwide. In its lings, CliniComp stated that it provides EHR services to 44 VA health care facilities in the U.S. and 56 Defense Department facilities worldwide.
A VA source told FCW that the agency and Cerner have agreed to a top-line number in the neighborhood of $10 billion for the contract — signi cantly less than the $16 billion to $18 billion estimates that have been reported in the press.
The rst task orders on the Cerner contract are expected to be awarded in early 2018, with a go-live date at the rst sites sometime in mid-2019.
That schedule matches the strategy
formulated by DOD, which recently completed implementing the initial operating capability for the Cerner EHR at sites in the Paci c Northwest.
The VA source told FCW that the plan to build on DOD rollouts of the Cerner software is a key reason why the price tag for the overall EHR deal is lower than expected.
CliniComp intends to appeal Griggsby’s ruling. The company is also seeking an injunction to prevent VA from making an award to Cerner while the appeal grinds on — a move VA and Cerner both oppose.
Although the judge ruled that CliniComp lacked standing, the language of her ruling appeared to open the door to other challenges.
“The court notes, however, that there is less evidence in the administrative record to speci cally support the secretary’s decision to award the subject contract to Cerner,” Griggsby wrote. At another point she observed, “The administrative record does not provide any other information to explain why the secretary selected Cerner to perform this contract.”
Once the contract is signed, it will be subject to protest by other vendors. — Adam Mazmanian
PEOEIS Public Affairs
@PEOEISPAOf ce
PEO EIS/CHESS’ Dawn Bare is one of
this year’s prestigious FCW Rising Stars!
read her story: @FCWnow #FCWRisingStar https://fcw.com/articles/2017/10/11/rising-stars-bare.aspx
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