The VA hosts IT industry day, telling contractors to bring their ‘A’ games for the age of AI

The Department of Veterans Affairs hosted an IT industry day last week with a specific takeaway from the agency’s deputy CIO: incumbency itself is not enough. Zack Schwartz, principal deputy assistant secretary in the VA’s Office of Information and Technology, said he’s made it clear that tech contractors need to bring their “A-game when it comes to supporting the veteran,” and the VA is open for business with whoever can do it best. “Incumbency is not a guarantee, incumbency is not an advantage,” Schwartz said in an interview with FedScoop. “We will not settle just because you’ve supported the VA in the past.” Schwartz said last Wednesday’s private IT Advanced Planning Brief to Industry was a breakthrough between the agency and industry, as he made it clear that the “massive organization” is “moving extremely fast” to modernize and integrate AI with governance.

LOGZONE, an Alabama-based logistics services provider, has agreed to pay more than $507,000 to resolve allegations that it misrepresented its compliance with Pentagon cybersecurity requirements while doing work with the Navy. According to a settlement agreement published last Thursday, the Justice Department alleged that LOGZONE failed to fully implement required security controls under NIST Special Publication 800-171 despite its contract mandating compliance. While not an explicit violation of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, the suit highlights the Defense Department’s increasing scrutiny of the defense industry not implementing required cybersecurity measures for sensitive information. The settlement stems from two contracts awarded by the Navy between 2021 and 2022 for logistics, inventory management and facility support services for the Naval Oceanographic Command located at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. According to the settlement agreement, LOGZONE received more than $682,000 under the contracts through March 2025.

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