A new final rule four years in the making will amend the Federal Acquisition Regulations, or FAR, with new sections on the basic safeguarding of contractor information systems.

The rule, published on May 16, 2016 in the Federal Register and issued by the Defense Department, General Services Administration and NASA, will add a subpart and contract clause on contractor systems that process, store or transmit federal contract information, and calls on contractors to apply a minimum of 15 security control requirements.

This type of information is not intended for public release and excludes information that the government provides to the public or that is related to processing payments.

The focus of the rule is on a basic level of safeguarding, and contractors still have to comply with safeguarding requirements for protecting controlled unclassified information, or CUI. “Systems that contain classified information, or CUI, such as personally identifiable information, require more than the basic level of protection,” the rule stated.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/final-rule-beefs-mandates-contractor-information-systems-security/2016-05-17