Page 35 - Security Today, October 2019

expressed reluctance on the part of DOD to help contractors cover added costs for cybersecurity, saying it should be a baseline expecta- tion in contracts.
However, at a Professional Services Council event, Katie Ar- rington, special assistant to the assistant secretary for defense for acquisition for cyber, announced that the department would allow contractors to write off a portion of their cybersecurity spending for government contracts, including implementing NIST guidance.
Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Profes- sional Services Council, welcomed the shift, stating that it would be contradictory for DOD to refuse to provide financial incentives for cybersecurity while it is also expressing a desire to expand the num- ber of businesses that make up the defense industrial base.
“To be a smart businessman, let alone a contractor, you ought to undertake this [level of security] because our adversaries are stealing everything,” Chvotkin said. “On the other hand, [DOD] is trying to entice nontraditional companies and small companies that otherwise ... might not see the need to incur such significant costs to reach the level that is expected as a contractor or subcontractor.”
Still, it’s not clear how DID’s reimbursement policy will work, which contracts it would apply to or what percentage of a company’s costs would be covered.
A Shake-up of the Contracting Community
James Goepel, CEO and general counsel at cybersecurity consulting
firm Fathom Cyber, told FCW he has serious doubts that many de- fense contractors will be ready by September 2020. For most com- panies, the associated costs are less about assets and technology and more about training employees and allocating personnel to map and formalize internal IT policies. The potential for an initial shock to the federal contracting system is real.
“I do think that it’s going to hurt us in the short term from a product-availability perspective,” said Goepel, who also teaches cy- bersecurity at Drexel University’s law and business schools. “The government is going to miss out on stuff, and there are going to be companies that go out of business because of this. But in the end, I think that it may actually be a better thing for country unfortunately.”
Metzger doesn’t go that far but believes a short-term effect could be the departure of some companies from the federal contracting space. The impact might be hardest on small and medium-sized busi- nesses that have fewer financial resources and have typically avoided the level of scrutiny directed toward large prime contractors.
“I think the short-term impact is that companies of all sizes are going to be looking at affordable effective ways to improve their cy- bersecurity,” he said. “Nobody knows exactly today what you will need to do to get a security rates score of [1 to 5] ... I’m thinking that many companies will be targeting their investments and actions to be sure that when it comes into place they will get at least a 3.”
Derek B. Johnson is a senior staff writer at FCW.
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