GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (12/28–1/1)
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This week's Weekly Debrief covers the Army's plans to reduce dependance on contractors for software, DIB cyber and the CMMC, small business opportunities under the Biden administration, legal issues surrounding the SolarWinds breach, and IT modernization.
Defense
"By March, Army Futures Command plans to award an offeror with an agreement to establish a program that would start with coding workshops and beginner training and, after five years, end with a scalable government-only software development facility."
"On Dec. 7, the National Security Agency issued an advisory to the Department of Defense and its defense industrial base (DIB) stating that Russian state-sponsored groups have been actively attacking a number of remote-work platforms developed by VMWare in an attempt to gain privileged access to target data. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued similar warnings about the need for government agencies and their supporting organizations to patch holes in various VPN solutions to keep unauthorized users off their networks."
Small Business
GovExec – Biden Administration Likely To Increase Contracting Opportunities for Small and Minority-Owned Businesses
"The incoming Biden administration is likely to increase contracting opportunities for small and minority-owned businesses. President-elect Biden will take office in less than one month and his transition website states that tackling climate change, racial inequalities, the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession will be his main priorities, all of which could involve federal contracting."
Cyber
"The new standard is rolling out, with many government contractors wondering how they can achieve compliance. Discussing federal compliance with mandated standards isn’t a thrilling prospect for most businesses. But since the Defense Department relies on over 300,000 companies and subcontractors to maintain operations, it’s of massive import."
"Every massive breach comes with a trail of lawsuits and regulatory ramifications that can last for years. Home Depot, for instance, only last month settled with a group of state attorneys general over its 2014 breach. The SolarWinds security incident that U.S. officials have pinned on state-sponsored Russian hackers is unlike anything that came before, legal experts say, meaning the legal liability could take even longer to resolve in court."
Modernization
"Philadelphia’s yellow fever outbreak in 1793 and the 1918 Spanish flu couldn’t do what the COVID-19 pandemic did for Congress this year: force it to reckon with its historical objection to institutional change. The House of Representatives established the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in January 2019. And since then, most of the committee’s work has been treated as recommendations, rather than as a call for urgent and necessary action."
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