The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council—comprising the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)—announced the proposition of two new rules on October 2, 2023. This move, which many regarded as a massive tsunami of cybersecurity regulation, provoked quite a series of discussions and debates within the legal professional community.
The proposed rules aim to overhaul the cybersecurity landscape within the federal contract space. It is a strong symbol that the government’s emphasis on reinforcing cybersecurity protocols and regulations on contractors is intensifying.
The details of the new regulations, however, have not been fully elaborated upon and a range of questions still exist. While the holistic implications of this overhaul on the cybersecurity landscape, both domestically and globally, might not be entirely clear yet; it’s clear this is a step taken by the FAR Council to ensure better cybersecurity adherence by contractors.
This information is based on a brief posted by Morrison & Foerster LLP – Government. You can find out more about the proposed rules and the FAR Council’s initiative here.
As we delve deeper into the discussion and continue to explore the questions that these new proposals open, we encourage all legal professionals to partake in the dialogue, focusing on understanding the full implications of these proposed rules and how they might impact the various cybersecurity landscape elements and the regulatory environment as a whole.