Compliance Stuff

The federal government has issued a sweeping proposed rule that could significantly reshape cybersecurity and compliance obligations for federal contractors that handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). If finalized, the new Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provisions would establish a governmentwide framework governing how contractors identify, safeguard, report, and manage CUI across civilian and defense contracts, while imposing substantial new compliance responsibilities that extend far beyond existing requirements such as the Department of Defense’s current cybersecurity rules. For contractors that do business with the federal government, the proposed rule signals an important shift toward more uniform and significantly more demanding CUI compliance obligations. A Governmentwide CUI Framework Is Taking Shape Historically, cybersecurity and information protection requirements related to sensitive government information have varied significantly across agencies. While...

  The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) is an  Executive Order  that seeks to reform the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to eliminate barriers to doing business with the Federal Government. This monumental change is akin to removing the traffic light at a four-way intersection and replacing it with a stop sign. So, will the government’s signal change improve efficiency, or will it cause more traffic and accidents? Let’s take a look. What is the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul? The  White House  intends for the RFO to streamline the procurement process. To achieve this goal, the FAR Council, the heads of agencies, and senior acquisition officials will amend the FAR so that it only contains provisions that are required by statute or “are otherwise necessary to support simplicity and usability, strengthen the efficacy of the procurement system, or protect economic or national security interests.” To date, little guidance has been issued to determine which regulatio...