The bottom line on the 11^th US Appellate Court’s decision on the contract vaccine mandate issue issued last week is that nothing is likely to change anytime soon.  The Court essentially issued a split decision.  On one hand they upheld the contention of the Associated Builders and Contractors that President Biden made overly broad use of the Procurement Act when trying to mandate that all federal contractors be vaccinated against COVID 19.  On the other, they said Read more

Search on “federal contracts” and “Zero Trust” these days and you’ll find federal agencies talking about their moves to implement this important cybersecurity standard.  Offerings from government contractors to help with that implementation are also easy to find.  What about contractors, themselves, though?  Contractors frequently handle sensitive information and work side-by-side with federal employees.  Even commercial item contractors can do work in sensitive or classified offices.  There are thousands of commercial item and service contractors doing business with federal agencies today, including many small businesses.  Ask one about Zero Trust and you’re just as likely to get a response involving the Friday night plans for a teenager as an acknowledgement of a federal cyber issue.   The GSA website defines Zero Trust as “an approach to cybersecurity that goes beyond “trust but verify” and treats all networks and traffic as potential threats.”  It also lists multiple components for Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA).  These can serve as guidelines for what contractor systems should look like and include such features as: Read more