In the event that you have a contract with the department of defense, you will be required to observe the defense federal acquisition regulation supplement clauses that are in the contracts. In most countries, the federal government is governed by set rules and regulations that oversee its acquisition of products; such rules are referred to as DFARS. Contractors need to ensure that they are observing all the clauses set in the DFARS since if they fail to do so, their contract with the federal government can be terminated. Contractors also need to follow the rules stated in the contract since whey they fail to do so, they may end up losing all their work. It is worth noting that the clauses have a number of regulations, however, one of the vital regulations that contractors need to keep in mind is the DFARS clause that defines cybersecurity standards. It is worth noting that the cybersecurity standards clause calls for contractors to implement the requirements identified in the National Institute of Science and Technology Special Publication 800-171.
Many times, contractors who are in contract with the government tend to come into possession of non-classified information which the government needs to safeguard. Though the unclassified information may seem of less importance to the contractors, protection of such information is vital for national security concerns. When the federal government realizes that a contractor has access to non-classified information, it will ensure that such information is not disclosed so that to protect the person or entity who owns the information.
It is worth noting that not all cases involving non-compliance can lead to loss of contract, the contracting officer needs to determine the consequence of the action. In the event that you are dealing with contracts that involve controlled unclassified information, attestation of compliance is a prerequisite for submitting bids for future DOD contracts. It is the role of small contractors who are subcontractors to the prime contractors to expect their primes to be vigilant on ensuring their compliance.
On the other hand, smaller contractors, the challenge they encounter is on how to find a compliance strategy for the rules. When you want to get into contract with the federal government, you need to observe the first rule that requires contractors to have adequate security on covered information systems.
In this section, we will take you through the factors to consider in getting federal government contract. First and foremost, you need to ask what constitutes adequate security in regards to DFARS compliance. The contractors need to be in a better position to describe how they have implemented, the safeguards described on the special publications. Therefore, when you pay attention to the contents of this article, you will understand much about DFARS compliance.