Booz Allen scores $621M DHS contract for government-wide cybersecurity program

Multinational consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton has been awarded a six-year, $621 million contract to further develop and implement the Department of Homeland Security’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, a government-wide cybersecurity effort to monitor and protect federal networks.

The award is tied to the Dynamic and Evolving Federal Enterprise Network Defense (DEFEND) Program, part of CDM Phase 3. Booz Allen was among a small group of contractors also involved in prior stages, providing a total of 13 federal departments and agencies with cybersecurity software that can help spot and mitigate malicious activity.

“Our work will expand into new areas of cybersecurity, like incident response and automation,” Marcie Nagel, a Booz Allen principal and leader of the firm’s CDM work, said in a release. “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.”

Launched in 2012 by the Homeland Security Department as part of a broad strategy to improve cybersecurity across the government, Friday’s contract extends through three current and possible future CDM phases; worth upwards of $3.4 billion.

The latest award will advance the DEFEND program by focusing on “reducing the federal government’s threat surface.”