DHS kicks off continuous monitoring contract

Four companies have received task orders worth a total of $60 million from the Department of Homeland Security under the agency's $6 billion Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) contract.

The initial orders were primarily for products to provide immediate protection for network endpoints such as desktop computers and servers, said Matt Brown, vice president of homeland security and cyber solutions at Knowledge Consulting Group, one of the companies that were awarded task orders. Other products included hardware and software inventory tools and software licenses, he added.

Knowledge Consulting received $8.5 million worth of task orders. The other companies are Hewlett-Packard ($32.4 million), Northrop Grumman ($15.8 million) and Technica ($3.8 million).

"It's great to see DHS moving swiftly to get this first phase of a major government cybersecurity program underway," said Ken Karsten, vice president of federal sales at McAfee, in a statement. Several vendors included McAfee solutions in their product offerings.

The award notice came from the General Services Administration's Federal Acquisition Service, which manages the CDM contract for DHS. Last summer, the department partnered with GSA to award a multi-vendor, five-year blanket purchase agreement that aims to provide real-time CDM services to executive branch agencies, state and local entities, and the defense industrial base sector.

Brown said he expects the next set of orders to be awarded in the second quarter. Those orders will most likely be for more complex services as agencies incorporate CDM more deeply into their operations.

"Government agencies shouldn't be expected to leap from A to Z immediately," Karsten said. "With CDM, they can move progressively through thoughtfully designed steps to achieve a high-level security posture."