CACI wins task order to provide Navy with information assurance

Select cybersecurity information assurance services for the Systems Center Atlantic (SSC Atlantic) of the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) are now being provided by CACI through a $21 million task order. 

 CACI will upgrade the industrial control systems managed by Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) and ensure the Navy’s cyber security protection systems meet the Department of Defense’s information assurance standards, according to a press release.

“Because of the interconnected nature of today’s Navy systems, a new approach is required,” said Ed Lazarski, Director of Cyber Security for Program Executive Office C4I in 2015. “Adversaries are able to exploit weaknesses in any of these systems, including the cyber gaps between them, to access weapons and platforms tasked with network security…the Navy needs to protect all the critical systems from the various forms of attack,” he said. 

A key part of information assurance in cyber security is operator training. CACI offers mechanisms to limit exposure and exploitation risks that can be implemented even in highly integrated networks and open architecture systems, according to CACI reports.

“Systems are going to get hacked,” said Kurt Wendelken, Assistant Commander for Enterprise Logistics Engineering at NAVSUP, at the 16^th Annual AFCEA NOVA Army IT Day earlier this month. Commercial cyber security service providers have some of the best cyber defense capabilities out there, he said.

According to a Navy Press Release, SPAWAR’s SSC Atlantic division is in charge of the Navy’s technical information assurance. Last year, it issued an official list of Navy cyber security standards, which include host level protection, network firewalls, network intrusion detection, defensive implementation infrastructure, boundary protection, and information security continuous monitoring.

The standards apply to Naval IT systems across the board and also play a major role in the Navy’s CyberSafe initiative. First announced in 2015, CyberSafe is a program with the goal of ensuring that all software, industrial architecture, hardware, and networks are secure prior to implementation, according to a SPAWAR press release.

“The decisive fight may well be in the electromagnetic spectrum,” said Maj. Gen. Wilson A. Shoffner, Director of Operations at the Army RCO, at the AFCEA NOVA Army IT Day. “If we don’t win the cyber and EW fight, then the [next] maneuver may not matter, because we may not get to it,” he said.

The $21 million task order represents a continuation of services provided by CACI to the Department of the Navy. The task order for a two-year period beginning in 2017.