FCW Insider: Nov. 15

Citing "unmistakable bias," Amazon Web Services plans to sue the Department of Defense in the Court of Federal Claims to seek reconsideration of the award to Microsoft in the $10 billion, 10-year Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract. The lawsuit is expected to involve allegations of political interference from President Donald Trump, whose animus to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is well documented. Adam Mazmanian has the story.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released a letter from the Office of Director of National Intelligence indicating that U.S. intelligence agencies haven't used authorities under the Patriot Act to collect cell site location data in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court case last year. However, according to the letter, spy agencies reserve the right to collect location data in the future. Derek B. Johnson explains.

Rick Driggers, deputy assistant director at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said his agency is said the agency is looking for better coordination across industrial sectors and across federal agencies when it comes to protecting critical infrastructure from cyber and physical threats. Derek has more.

Navy CIO Aaron Weis said DOD's upcoming unified cyber standard will help close the innovation gap by adopting industry standards, but ultimately the onus is on the Defense Department to set the tempo. Lauren B. Williams takes a look.

Quick Hits

*** The Defense Innovation Unit is looking for an alternative to its existing Cloud Access Point gateway – a boundary protection system that secures communications between cloud service providers and Department of Defense devices. DIU wants companies to find off-the-shelf commercial solutions that remain continuously updated and compatible with a wide array of managed services and can scale to accommodate 500,000 users and 1 million endpoints. To qualify, a cloud security offering needs to meet DOD Impact Level 2 security and vendors must be "open to pursuing" Impact Level 4 certification. Teaming arrangements are permitted. As with other DIU awards, vendors will be granted Other Transaction agreements to support the development of a prototype, with the possibility of follow-on production awards. DIU is accepting submissions through Nov. 27.

*** A congressionally chartered report from the National Academy of Public Administration recommends that Congress build on existing competencies in science and technology assessment and create a new office to fill gaps at the committee level. The report calls for a new Office of the Congressional Science and Technology Advisor to focus on adding advisors to House and Senate committees with significant portfolios while continuing to support the nascent Science and Technology Assessment role at the Government Accountability Office and rapid reaction policy explainers from the Congressional Research Service. The report also recommends a coordinating council to supervise all these lines of effort.

*** The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is being extended through the end of the 116th Congress, which ends in January 2021. The new committee is charged with upgrading congressional management and human resources policies as well as technology and transparency.