GSA Wants Feedback on Proposed Cybersecurity SIN

The GSA is considering the creation of a new Special Item Number (SIN) under IT Schedule 70 specifically for Cybersecurity and Information Assurance that they’re dubbing CyberIA. With all the high-profile cybersecurity examples and challenges that federal agencies have been facing GSA hopes that the grouping of these security products and services on their popular Schedule 70 will make it much easier for agencies to procure security solutions as well as give companies a centralized acquisition venue by which to present their solutions.

GSA recently released a Request for Information (RFI) that provided their perspective on the change and how industry and agencies may weigh in.  Per the announcement:

“The purpose of this change would be to 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. This effort would support initiatives to improve customer procurement of CyberIA offerings and enable agencies to take full advantage of CyberIA benefits to maximize capacity utilization, improve IT flexibility and responsiveness, and minimize cost.”

The scope and description of the proposed CyberIA SIN is identified in the table below. 

Proposed SIN Descriptions for CyberIA Products and Services

Schedule 70 Grouping	SIN Category	Cybersecurity/Information Assurance (CyberIA) Products and Services SIN Description
CyberIA SIN	Hardware Software Services	SIN categories  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 Communications Security
Source: GSA

GSA has stated two main goals that they hope to achieve with their RFI:

1. Gain feedback from industry and any other relevant stakeholders on the proposed SIN
2. Better understand how industry partners are selling CyberIA products and services today on IT Schedule 70, to support a decision.

As part of the effort, GSA provided several detailed questions to industry so vendors could provide feedback on the scope and other aspects of the potential CyberIA SIN, including current vendor offerings and pricing considerations. GSA is also interested in feedback from federal agencies in order to gain a deeper understanding on how agencies procure these solutions and how the proposed SIN might impact transparency and the ease of using Schedule 70.

All responses are due to GSA by 4 PM EST on September 11.