Homeland Security chooses Booz Allen Hamilton as prime contractor for $621 million cybersecurity task order

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently selected Booz Allen Hamilton as the first prime contractor under the government-wide Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Dynamic and Evolving Federal Enterprise Network Defense (DEFEND) Program.

DHS gave Booz Allen a $621 million single-award, six-year task order, which will extend across the three current and possible future CDM Phases.

CDM DEFEND will focus on, among other topics, cybersecurity protections for cloud and mobile devices, automated capabilities for incident response and system compliance, improved protection of data in storage and in transit and enhanced user management.

“We’re thrilled to grow our partnership with Department of Homeland Security in their critical mission to protect the United States and its citizens from cybersecurity threats,” Marcie Nagel, a Booz Allen principal and leader of the firm’s CDM work, said. “Our work will expand into new areas of cybersecurity, like incident response and automation. This work aims to help these federal departments and agencies leverage new capabilities that will ultimately empower our clients to defend their networks faster with more flexibility and greater visibility into the network itself.”

DHS, the Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) within the Government Services Administration and the task order’s seven participating agencies will lead the CDM DEFEND initiative.

“The cybersecurity threats facing government agencies today are growing increasingly dynamic and sophisticated, making them more challenging to defend against,” Brad Medairy, Booz Allen senior vice president and leader of the firm’s Civil cyber business, said. “We are well positioned to help in this fight, applying experiences that our analysts, threat hunters, and engineers gain by working on the cutting edge of cybersecurity. We are embedded in the nation’s most important missions and will continue to help drive toward innovative solutions like CDM to make the world a safer place in the face of ever-evolving cyber threats.”

In 2015, Booz Allen became one of the first companies awarded multiple contracts to partner with DHS on the CDM Program. In the first Phase, Booz Allen introduced cybersecurity solutions across 80 percent of the .gov enterprise and helped 13 Federal Agencies deploy cybersecurity tools to protect 4 million computers.