GSA considers cybersecurity category on Schedule 70

The General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service is weighing the idea of adding a special “cybersecurity products and services” section to its premiere IT contracting vehicle.

GSA issued this week a request for information proposing the creation of a special item number, or SIN — a sort of subcategory used to differentiate particularly popular categories — under IT Schedule 70 for cybersecurity/information assurance.

With cyber attacks stealing the attention of IT shops throughout the public and private sectors, the so-called CyberIA SIN would “improve the way that GSA offers CyberIA products and services through IT Schedule 70, increase visibility, improve access to CyberIA offerings, and to provide industry partners the opportunity to differentiate their CyberIA products and services from other IT related products and services,” according to the RFI. This would better align Schedule 70 cyber technologies to the current market needs.

“GSA believes the CyberIA products and services market is sufficiently mature for this SIN to attract both vendors and government buyers,” the RFI says.

According to the RFI, the CyberIA SIN will likely include hardware, software and services associated with information assurance, virus detection, intrusion detection and prevention, network management, situational awareness and incident response, secure Web hosting, backup and security services, and communications security. The proposed cyber SIN would exclude offerings already under the “132-6X Series SINs” for identity, credentials and access management.

Earlier this year, GSA also launched an IT Schedule 70 SIN for cloud services.

GSA is asking for industry feedback through Sept. 11.