FCW Insider: Feb. 1

The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.

DOD signals it could move on from JEDI if court battles drag out

The Pentagon is committed to enterprise-wide cloud capabilities at the unclassified, secret and top secret levels, but if a court case around the JEDI procurement doesn't go their way, DOD is signaling it could find other paths to the cloud.

Lawmakers press NSA for answers about Juniper hack from 2015

A group of Democratic lawmakers is calling on the NSA to explain its part in developing a flawed encryption algorithm that was used and subsequently exploited through Juniper Network's security products, citing the supply chain hack involving SolarWinds Orion.

Pandemic response drives DOD's sharp uptick in OTA spending

The Defense Pricing and Contracting Agency recorded more than $16 billion in other transaction agreements in 2020 in the Defense Department's response to the pandemic.

Quick Hits

*** The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued $44 million in no-bid contracts to Deloitte to develop tracking tools to support distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. But states aren't using the Vaccine Administration Management System, according to a Jan. 30 report in the MIT Technology Review, because the software is error prone and was built with limitations that are disproportionately affecting older users.

*** The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency at the Defense Department is seeking contractor support services to manage its insider threat systems, according to contracting documents posted to SAM.gov on Jan. 28.

*** Join federal CIOS and industry leaders for the FCW Pillars of Modernization Workshop on Weds. Feb. 10 at 8:30 AM. IT modernization has been a federal priority for years, but many agencies still struggle to turn that goal into a practical plan of action. Securing multi-year funding is one challenge, but the fundamental obstacle is often the sheer complexity of transforming government-scale systems. This virtual FCW Workshop will feature government and industry experts sharing the lessons they've learned and the results they've been able to drive at key federal agencies.