A governmentwide cybersecurity purchasing contract gains converts

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Security experts inside and outside government are becoming more convinced that the federal government must develop contracting programs that provide agencies with the ability to buy cybersecurity tools and services quickly to fend off ever-evolving and sophisticated threats.

There is no department that better illustrates the problem than the Defense Department. Currently, Defense takes an average of 81 months -- nearly seven years -- to develop an IT program from its initial funding to when it becomes operational, making systems four to five generations old by the time they are turned on, said Deputy Secretary William Lynn during a military symposium on cyberspace in May. At the meeting, he announced the formation of a task force that will look into speeding the IT acquisition process. But such a long development and purchasing cycle makes it difficult to secure computer systems against cyberattacks that can develop almost instantaneously. "The challenge we have in the cyber world is that adversaries are acting on a faster time frame -- days or hours, not months or years," said Don Proctor, a senior vice president at Cisco and leader of its cybersecurity task force in the Office of the Chief Executive Officer.


A governmentwide cybersecurity purchasing contract gains converts