The Navy has been the victim of several high-profile breaches in the last few years, publishing a cybersecurity review in March 2019 that took a comprehensive look at Navy and Marine Corps systems. Now the service has awarded a $14 million contract for cyber risk assessments.
In an Aug. 7 posting, the service said it awarded RTL Networks, Inc. to perform work at China Lake, California, for Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
In the original solicitation, published in October 2018, the Navy noted that “[r]ecent global cyber events reinforce that cyberthreats to U.S. infrastructure and military systems are real and significant.”
According to the initial notice, bidding companies were responsible for providing information regarding experience in tactical aircraft cyber risk assessment, weapons cyber risk assessment, unmanned aerial vehicle cyber risk assessment, trainers/simulators cyber risk assessment, NAVAIR cyber risk assessment process, NAVAIR cyber table top process and general cyber vulnerability and risk assessment.
Cybersecurity has been a pervasive problem in the Navy, to the point it was a leading factor for Secretary Richard Spencer to choose Adm. Michael Gilday, then a three-star, to lead the service as its next chief of naval operations, Navy Times reports.
“Spencer was drawn to the four years Gilday spent at Cyber Command inside Maryland’s Fort Meade before he went to the Pentagon. He wanted to find someone with an acute knowledge of cyberwarfare as his next CNO,” according to Navy Times.
Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.
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