The General Services Administration unveiled its draft solicitation for four new Special Item Numbers on Aug. 17, giving federal agencies a new way to buy cybersecurity services.
The SINs will be designed specifically for Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services and will be available for purchase by the agencies starting Oct. 1.
The draft solicitation was initially supposed to roll out on Aug. 12 but was delayed while GSA officials finalized additional details.
The HACS SINs were mandated by the Obama administration’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan, released in February, which required GSA to develop them within IT Schedule 70, the agency’s largest indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) multiple award schedule.
“Whether on the federal side, or from an industry perspective we are united in making government work as efficiently and effectively as possible. And nowhere is this shared commitment more crucial than in the area of cybersecurity,” GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth said during a workshop in June. “Challenges and threats to our security develop quickly – so government has to not only move much faster to respond, we also need to have the tools to get ahead of those threats.”
Specifically, the HACS SINs will provide services in four areas:
- Penetration Testing under SIN 132-45A
- Incident Response under SIN 132-45B
- Cyber Hunt under SIN 132-45C
- Risk and Vulnerability Assessment under SIN 132-45D
Vendors already offering HACS under IT Schedule 70 will have to shift their products over to the new SINs ahead of the Oct. 1 debut. GSA officials said in a posting on GSA Interact that they planned to begin vendor evaluations on Sept. 1.
The agency will also be
holding a webinarfor stakeholders wanting more information about the new SINs on Aug. 24.
