The General Services Administration is delaying the final draft solicitation for its new special item number (SIN) for proactive cybersecurity services like threat hunting and penetration testing from the original Aug. 12 release date, but not by long.
Creating the Highly Adaptable Cybersecurity Services (HACS) SIN on IT Schedule 70 was mandated as part of President Barack Obama’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) released earlier this year with the administration’s proposed budget, which called on GSA to create contract vehicles to help agencies find the cybersecurity services they need.
The solicitation, when finalized, will offer cyber services vendors a roadmap for getting a spot under the new SIN 132, which will be a one-stop shop for agencies interested in buying such services.
Specifically, the HACS SIN looks to solve three issues:
- Improve the way GSA offers cybersecurity services through IT Schedule 70.
- Increase visibility and improve access to cybersecurity services offerings.
- Provide industry partners the opportunity to differentiate their cybersecurity services from other IT related services.
“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.”
GSA officials expect to publish the final SIN and begin onboarding vendors by Sept. 12, though, with the delay that date will likely be pushed out accordingly.
The HACS SIN is separate from another GSA cybersecurity initiative in the works, the cybersecurity and information assurance (CyberIA) SIN, which would focus on cyber tools — such as firewalls and antivirus — rather than services.
