On July 14, the FAR Council published an interim rule revising FAR 52.204-24 and FAR 52.204-25 to implement Section 889(a)(1)(B) of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibiting executive agencies from entering into, renewing, or extending contracts with contractors that use Huawei, ZTE, or other identified telecommunications equipment and services (“covered telecommunications equipment and services”) anywhere within the contracting entity as a substantial or essential component of any system or critical technology of any…

On July 1, 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) published its audit report. The report assessed the DoD Joint Artificial Intelligence Center’s (JAIC) progress in developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance framework and standards, as well as DoD components’ implementation of security controls to protect AI data and technologies from internal and external cyber threats. DoD OIG concluded that the JAIC must do more and ensure consistency with DoD’s…

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently released the final public draft of NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-172, formerly known as Draft NIST SP 800-171B. Building on the security requirements in NIST SP 800-171, the applicable standard under DFARS 252.204-7012, 800-172 provides 34 enhanced requirements to protect Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) associated with critical programs or high value assets from the risks posed by advanced persistent threats (APTs). Unlike prior drafts,…

In M.C. Dean, Inc., GAO reaffirmed that where an offeror has actual knowledge that a proposed key person has become unavailable before award, the offeror is required to notify the agency, which may result in the offeror’s exclusion. Interestingly, here the awardee key person at issue was still technically available to work on the contract, but had been denied a security clearance necessary to perform their proposed role: program manager. The awardee argued that…

On July 6, 2020, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has made publicly available various types of information about all Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, and targeted media scrutiny has immediately followed. For loans of $150,000 and above, the SBA has released the loan range (e.g., $150,000 – 350,000, $1,000,000 – 2,000,000, $5,000,000 – 10,000,000) and the recipients’ business name and street address. For loans of less than $150,000, the SBA has released the exact amount…