CSS_Attachment_5_HHS_IT_Security_Requirements.pdf

ARTICLE H.56. HHS SECURITY AND PRIVACY LANGUAGE FOR INFORMATION AND IT

PROCUREMENTS

ARTICLE H.56.1. INFORMATION SECURITY AND/OR PHYSICAL ACCESS SECURITY

A. Baseline Security Requirements

1. Applicability. The requirements herein apply whether the entire contract or order

(hereafter "contract"), or portion thereof, includes either or both of the following:

i. Access (Physical or Logical) to Government Information: A Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) employee will have or will be given the ability to have, routine physical (entry) or logical (electronic) access to government information.

ii. Operate a Federal System Containing Information: A Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) will operate a federal system and technology containing data that supports the HHS mission. In addition to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 2.1 definition of "information technology" (IT), the term as used in this section includes computers, ancillary equipment (including imaging peripherals, input, output, and storage devices necessary for security and surveillance), peripheral equipment designed to be controlled by the central processing unit of a computer, software, firmware and similar procedures, services (including support services), and related resources.

2. Safeguarding Information and Information Systems. All government information and information systems must be protected in accordance with HHS/NIH policies and level of risk. At a minimum, the Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must:

i. Protect the:

Confidentiality, which means preserving authorized restrictions on access and disclosure, based on the security terms found in this contract, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information;

Integrity, which means guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and ensuring information non-repudiation and authenticity;

and

Availability, which means ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information.

ii. Categorize all information owned and/or collected/managed on behalf of HHS/NIH and information systems that store, process, and/or transmit HHS information in accordance with FIPS 199 and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-60, Volume II: Appendices to Guide for Mapping Types of Information and Information Systems to Security Categories . Based on information provided by the ISSO, CISO, OpDiv SOP, or other representative, the impact level for each Security Objective (Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability) and the Overall Impact Level, which is the highest watermark of the three factors of the information or information system are the following:

Confidentiality: [ ] Low [x ] Moderate [ ] High Integrity: [ ] Low [x ] Moderate [ ] High Availability: [x ] Low [ ] Moderate [ ] High http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-60-rev1/SP800-60_Vol2-Rev1.pdf http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-60-rev1/SP800-60_Vol2-Rev1.pdf http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-60-rev1/SP800-60_Vol2-Rev1.pdf

Overall Risk Level: [ ] Low [x ] Moderate [ ] High

iii. Based on the agreed-upon level of impact, implement the necessary safeguards to protect all information systems and information collected and/or managed on behalf of HHS/NIH regardless of location or purpose.

iv. Report any discovered or unanticipated threats or hazards by either the agency or contractor, or if existing safeguards have ceased to function immediately after discovery, within one (1) hour or less, to the government representative(s).

v. Adopt and implement all applicable policies, procedures, controls, and standards required by the HHS/NIH Information Security Program to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of government information and government information systems for which the Contractor is responsible under this contract or to which the Contractor may otherwise have access under this contract. Obtain all applicable security and privacy policies by contacting the CO/COR or HHS/NIH security and/or privacy officials.

3. Protection of Sensitive Information. For security purposes, information is or may be sensitive because it requires security to protect its confidentiality, integrity, and/or availability. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must protect all government information that is or may be sensitive by securing it with a solution that is validated with current FIPS 140 validation certificate from the NIST CMVP.

4. Contractor Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Each Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) employee having access to non-public government information under this contract must complete the OpDiv non-disclosure agreement, https://ocio.nih.gov/aboutus/publicinfosecurity/acquisition/Documents/Nondisclosure.pdf , as applicable. Contractors (and/or subcontractors) must submit a copy of each signed and witnessed NDA to the Contracting Officer (CO) and/or CO Representative (COR) prior to performing any work under this acquisition.

B. Training Requirements

1. Mandatory Training for All Contractor Staff. All Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) employees assigned to work on this contract shall complete the applicable HHS/NIH Contractor Information Security Awareness, Privacy, and Records Management training course at https://irtsectraining.nih.gov/public before performing any work under this contract. Thereafter, the employees shall complete NIH Information Security Awareness, Privacy, and Records Management training at least annually, during the life of this contract. All provided training shall be compliant with HHS training policies.

2. Role-based Training. All Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) employees with significant security responsibilities (as determined by the program manager) must complete role-based training annually commensurate with their role and responsibilities in accordance with HHS policy and the HHS Role- Based Training (RBT) of Personnel with Significant Security Responsibilities Memorandum. Read further guidance about the NIH Role-based Training at: https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/asa/ocio/cybersecurity/security-awareness-training/index.html .

https://ocio.nih.gov/aboutus/publicinfosecurity/acquisition/Documents/Nondisclosure.pdf https://ocio.nih.gov/aboutus/publicinfosecurity/acquisition/Documents/Nondisclosure.pdf https://irtsectraining.nih.gov/public https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/asa/ocio/cybersecurity/security-awareness-training/index.html https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/asa/ocio/cybersecurity/security-awareness-training/index.html

3. Training Records. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) shall maintain training records for all its employees working under this contract in accordance with HHS policy. A copy of the training records shall be provided to the CO and/or COR within 30 days after contract award and annually thereafter or upon request.

C. Rules of Behavior

1. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must ensure that all employees performing on the contract comply with the HHS Information Technology General Rules of Behavior, HHS Rules of Behavior for Privileged Users.

2. All Contractor employees performing on the contract must read and adhere to the Rules of Behavior before accessing Department data or other information, systems, and/or networks that store/process government information, initially at the beginning of the contract and at least annually thereafter, which may be done as part of annual NIH Information Security Awareness Training. If the training is provided by the Contractor, the signed ROB must be provided as a separate deliverable to the CO and/or COR per defined timelines above.

D. Incident Response

1. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must respond to all alerts/Indicators of

Compromise (IOCs) provided by HHS Computer Security Incident Response Center (CSIRC)/NIH IRT teams within 24 hours, whether the response is positive or negative.

FISMA defines an incident as "an occurrence that (1) actually or imminently jeopardizes, without lawful authority, the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of information or an information system; or (2) constitutes a violation or imminent threat of violation of law, security policies, security procedures, or acceptable use policies. In accordance with OMB M-17-12, Preparing for and Responding to a Breach of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) , an incident is "an occurrence that (1) actually or imminently jeopardizes, without lawful authority, the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of information or an information system; or (2) constitutes a violation or imminent threat of violation of law, security policies, security procedures, or acceptable use policies" and a privacy breach is "the loss of control, compromise, unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized acquisition, or any similar occurrence where (1) a person other than an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses personally identifiable information or (2) an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses personally identifiable information for an other than authorized purpose." For additional information on the HHS breach response process, please see the HHS Policy and Plan for Preparing for and Responding to a Breach of Personally Identifiable Information (PII)."

1. In the event of a suspected or confirmed incident or breach, the Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must:

i. Protect all sensitive information, including any PII created, stored, or transmitted in the performance of this contract, with encryption solution that is validated with current FIPS 140 validation certificate from the NIST CMVP.

ii. NOT notify affected individuals unless so instructed by the Contracting Officer or designated representative. If so instructed by the Contracting Officer or representative, the Contractor must send NIH approved notifications to affected individuals in accordance with https://wiki.ocio.nih.gov/wiki/index.php/US- CERT_Federal_Incident_Notification_Guidelines

iii. Report all suspected and confirmed information security and privacy incidents and breaches to the OpDiv Incident Response Team (IRT) via email at IRT@mail.nih.gov , COR, CO, OpDiv SOP (or his or her designee), and other stakeholders, including breaches involving PII, in any medium or form, including paper, oral, or electronic, as soon as possible and without unreasonable delay, no later than one (1) hour, and consistent with the applicable OpDiv and HHS policy and procedures, NIST standards and guidelines, as well as US-CERT notification guidelines. The types of information required in an incident report must include at a minimum: company and point of contact information, contact information, impact classifications/threat vector, and the type of information compromised. In addition, the Contractor must:

Cooperate and exchange any information, as determined by the Agency, necessary to effectively manage or mitigate a suspected or confirmed breach;

Not include any sensitive information in the subject or body of any reporting e-mail; and

Encrypt sensitive information in attachments to email, media, etc.

iv. Comply with OMB M-17-12, Preparing for and Responding to a Breach of Personally

Identifiable Information, and HHS/NIH and NIH privacy breach response policies when handling PII breaches.

v. Provide full access and cooperate on all activities as determined by the Government to ensure an effective incident response, including providing all requested images, log files, and event information to facilitate rapid resolution of sensitive information incidents. This may involve disconnecting the system processing, storing, or transmitting the sensitive information from the Internet or other networks or applying additional security controls. This may also involve physical access to contractor facilities during a breach/incident investigation within an hour of discovery.

ARTICLE H.56.3. GOVERNMENT INFORMATION PROCESSED ON GOCO OR COCO

SYSTEMS

A. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR GOVERNMENT-OWNED/CONTRACTOR-OPERATED (GOCO

)AND CONTRACTOR-OWNED/CONTRACTOR-OPERATED (COCO) RESOURCES

a. Federal Policies- The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) shall comply with applicable federal laws that include, but are not limited to, the HHS Information Security and Privacy Policy (IS2P), Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) of 2014, (44 U.S.C.

101); National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-53, Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations; Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Managing Information as a Strategic Resource; and other applicable federal laws, regulations, NIST guidance, and Departmental policies.

b. Independent Assessment - due 90 days after the contract award. The Contractor (and/or subcontractor) shall have an independent third-party validate the security and privacy https://wiki.ocio.nih.gov/wiki/index.php/US-CERT_Federal_Incident_Notification_Guidelines https://wiki.ocio.nih.gov/wiki/index.php/US-CERT_Federal_Incident_Notification_Guidelines mailto:IRT@mail.nih.gov controls in place for the system(s). The independent third party shall review and analyze the Security Authorization package, and report on technical, operational, and management level deficiencies as outlined in NIST SP 800-53. The Contractor shall address all "high" deficiencies before submitting the package to the Government for acceptance. All remaining deficiencies must be documented in a system Plan of Actions and Milestones

(POA&M).

c. Information Security Continuous Monitoring - Upon the government issuance of an Authority to Operate (ATO), the Contractor (and/or subcontractor)-owned/operated systems that input, store, process, output, and/ or transmit government information, shall meet or exceed the Information Security Continuous Monitoring (ISCM) requirements in accordance with FISMA and NIST SP 800-137, Information Security Continuous Monitoring (ISCM) for Federal Information Systems and Organizations , and HHS IS2P. The following are the minimum requirements for ISCM:

i. Annual Assessment/ Penetration (Pen) Test - Assess the system security and privacy controls (or ensure an assessment of the controls is conducted) every two

(2) years on high-risk systems, to determine the implemented security and privacy controls are operating as intended and producing the desired results (this may involve penetration testing conducted by the agency or independent third-party. In addition, review all relevant A& A documentation (SSP, POA& M, Contingency Plan, etc.) and provide updates by specified due date provided by the Contracting Officer Representative.

ii. Vulnerability Management - Use SCAP-compliant automated tools for authenticated scans to scan information system(s) and detect any security vulnerabilities in all assets (computers, servers, routers, Web applications, databases, operating systems, etc.) that store and process government information.

Contractors shall actively manage system vulnerabilities using automated tools and technologies where practicable and in accordance with HHS policy. Automated tools shall be compliant with NIST- specified SCAP standards for vulnerability identification and management. The Contractor shall maintain a capability to provide security vulnerability scanning information for 100% of IT assets using SCAP- compliant automated tools and report to the agency at least within 30 days of the contract award.

d. Government Access for Security Assessment - In addition to the Inspection Clause in the contract, the Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) shall afford the Government access to the Contractor's facilities, installations, operations, documentation, information systems, and personnel used in performance of this contract to the extent required to carry out a program of security assessment (to include vulnerability testing), investigation, and audit to safeguard against threats and hazards to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of federal data or to the protection of information systems operated on behalf of HHS, including but are not limited to:

i. At any tier handling or accessing information, consent to and allow the Government, or an independent third party working at the Government's direction, without notice at any time during a weekday during regular business hours Contractor local time, to access Contractor and subcontractor installations, facilities, infrastructure, data centers, equipment (including but not limited to all servers, computing devices, and portable media), operations, documentation (whether in electronic, paper, or other forms), databases, and personnel which are used in performance of the contract.

The Government includes but is not limited to the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Government Accountability Office, and the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The purpose of the access is to facilitate performance inspections and reviews, security and compliance audits, and law enforcement investigations. For security audits, the audit may include but not be limited to such items as buffer overflows, open ports, unnecessary services, lack of user input filtering, cross site scripting vulnerabilities, SQL injection vulnerabilities, and any other known vulnerabilities.

ii. At any tier handling or accessing protected information, fully cooperate with all audits, inspections, investigations, forensic analysis, or other reviews or requirements needed to carry out requirements presented in applicable law or policy. Beyond providing access, full cooperation also includes, but is not limited to, disclosure to investigators of information sufficient to identify the nature and extent of any criminal or fraudulent activity and the individuals responsible for that activity. It includes timely and complete production of requested data, metadata, information, and records relevant to any inspection, audit, investigation, or review, and making employees of the Contractor available for interview by inspectors, auditors, and investigators upon request. Full cooperation also includes allowing the Government to make reproductions or copies of information and equipment, including, if necessary, collecting a machine or system image capture.

o Segregate Government protected information and metadata on the handling of Government protected information from other information. Commingling of information is prohibited.

Inspectors, auditors, and investigators will not be precluded from having access to the sought information if sought information is commingled with other information.

o Cooperate with inspections, audits, investigations, and reviews.

e. End of Life Compliance- The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must use Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) software or other software that is supported by the manufacturer. In addition, the COTS/other software need to be within one major version of the current version; deviation from this requirement will only be allowed via the HHS waiver process (approved by HHS CISO). The Contractor shall retire and/or upgrade all software/systems that have reached end-of-life in accordance with HHS End-of-Life Operating Systems, Software, and Applications Policy.

f. Desktops, Laptops, and Other Computing Devices Required for Use by the Contractor- The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) shall ensure that all IT equipment (e.g., laptops, desktops, servers, routers, mobile devices, peripheral devices, etc.) used to process information on behalf of HHS are deployed and operated in accordance with approved security configurations and meet the following minimum requirements:

i. Encrypt equipment and sensitive information stored and/or processed by such equipment in accordance with HHS and FIPS 140-3 encryption standards.

ii. Configure laptops and desktops in accordance with the latest applicable United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB), and HHS Minimum Security Configuration Standards;

iii. Maintain the latest operating system patch release and anti-virus software definitions within 15 days.

iv. Validate the configuration settings after hardware and software installation, operation, maintenance, update, and patching and ensure changes in hardware and software do not alter the approved configuration settings; and

v. Automate configuration settings and configuration management in accordance with HHS security policies, including but not limited to:

Configuring its systems to allow for periodic HHS vulnerability and security configuration assessment scanning; and Using Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP)-validated tools with

USGCB Scanner capabilities to scan its systems at least on a monthly basis and report the results of these scans to the CO and/or COR, Project Officer, and any other applicable designated POC.

ARTICLE H.56.4. CLOUD SERVICES

A. Assessment and Authorization (A&A) Process

1. The Contractor (and/ or any subcontractor) must comply with HHS and FedRAMP requirements as mandated by federal laws, regulations, and HHS policies, including making available any documentation, physical access, and logical access needed to support the A& A requirement. The level of effort for the A& A is based on the system's FIPS 199 security categorization and HHS/ NIH security policies.

i. In addition to the FedRAMP compliant ATO, the contractor shall complete and maintain an agency A& A package to obtain agency ATO prior to system deployment/ service implementation. The agency ATO must be approved by the NIH authorizing official (AO) prior to implementation of system and/ or service being acquired.

ii. CSP systems categorized as Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 199 high must leverage a FedRAMP accredited third- party assessment organization (3PAO); moderate impact CSP systems must make a best effort to use a FedRAMP accredited 3PAO. CSP systems categorized as FIPS 199 low impact may leverage a non- accredited, independent assessor.

iii. For all acquired cloud services, the A& A package must contain the following documentation: SSP, SAR, POA& M, Authorization Letter, CP and CPT report, E- Authorization (if applicable), PTA/ PIA (if applicable), Interconnection/ Data Use Agreements (if applicable), Authorization Letter, Configuration Management Plan (if applicable), Configuration Baseline, Following the initial ATO, the Contractor must review and maintain the ATO in accordance with HHS/ NIH policies.

2. HHS reserves the right to perform penetration testing (pen testing) on all systems operated on behalf of agency. If HHS exercises this right, the Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must allow HHS employees (and/ or designated third parties) to conduct Security Assessment activities to include control reviews in accordance with HHS requirements.

Review activities include, but are not limited to, scanning operating systems, web applications, wireless scanning; network device scanning to include routers, switches, and firewall, and IDS/IPS; databases and other applicable systems, including general support structure, that support the processing, transportation, storage, or security of Government information for vulnerabilities.

3. The Contractor must identify any gaps between required FedRAMP Security Control Baseline/Continuous Monitoring controls and the Contractor's implementation status as documented in the Security Assessment Report and related Continuous Monitoring artifacts. In addition, all gaps shall be documented and tracked by the contractor for mitigation in a Plan of Action and Milestones (POA& M) document. Depending on the severity of the risks, HHS may require remediation at the contractor's expense, before HHS issues an ATO.

4. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must mitigate security risks for which they are responsible, including those identified during A& A and continuous monitoring activities. All vulnerabilities and other risk findings must be remediated by the prescribed timelines from discovery: (1) critical vulnerabilities no later than thirty ( 30) days and ( 2) high, medium and low vulnerabilities no later than sixty ( 60) days. In the event a vulnerability or other risk finding cannot be mitigated within the prescribed timelines above, they must be added to the designated POA& M and mitigated within the newly designated timelines 30 days. HHS will determine the risk rating of vulnerabilities using FedRAMP baselines.

5. Revocation of a Cloud Service. HHS/NIH staff division have the right to take action in response to the CSP's lack of compliance and/or increased level of risk. In the event the CSP fails to meet HHS and FedRAMP security and privacy requirements and/ or there is an incident involving sensitive information, HHS and/or NIH may suspend or revoke an existing agency ATO (either in part or in whole) and/ or cease operations. If an ATO is suspended or revoked in accordance with this provision, the CO and/or COR may direct the CSP to take additional security measures to secure sensitive information. These measures may include restricting access to sensitive information on the Contractor information system under this contract. Restricting access may include disconnecting the system processing, storing, or transmitting the sensitive information from the Internet or other networks or applying additional security controls.

B. Reporting and Continuous Monitoring

1. Following the initial ATOs, the Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must perform the minimum ongoing continuous monitoring activities specified below, submit required deliverables by the specified due dates, and meet with the system/ service owner and other relevant stakeholders to discuss the ongoing continuous monitoring activities, findings, and other relevant matters. The CSP will work with the agency to schedule ongoing continuous monitoring activities.

2. At a minimum, the Contractor must provide the following artifacts/deliverables on a monthly basis as directed by the Contracting Officer/Contracting Officer Representative:

i. Operating system, database, Web application, and network vulnerability scan results.

ii. Updated POA&Ms;

iii. Any updated authorization package documentation as required by the annual attestation/assessment/review or as requested by the NIH System Owner or AO;

and

iv. Any configuration changes to the system and/or system components or CSP's cloud environment, that may impact HHS/NIH's security posture. Changes to the configuration of the system, its components, or environment that may impact the security posture of the system under this contract must be approved by the agency.

C. Incident Reporting

1. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must respond to all alerts/Indicators of

Compromise (IOCs) provided by HHS Computer Security Incident Response Center (CSIRC)/NIH IRT teams within one (1) hour of the discovery of the loss/theft, whether the response is positive or negative. FISMA defines an incident as "an occurrence that (1) actually or imminently jeopardizes, without lawful authority, the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of information or an information system; or (2) constitutes a violation or imminent threat of violation of law, security policies, security procedures, or acceptable use policies. The HHS Policy for IT Security and Privacy Incident Reporting and Response further defines incidents as events involving cyber security and privacy threats, such as viruses, malicious user activity, loss of, unauthorized disclosure or destruction of data, and so on.

A privacy breach is a type of incident and is defined by Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) as the loss of control, compromise, unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized acquisition, or any similar occurrence where (1) a person other than an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses personally identifiable information or (2) an authorized user accesses or potentially accesses personally identifiable information for an other than authorized purpose. The HHS Policy for IT Security and Privacy Incident Reporting and Response further defines a breach as "a suspected or confirmed incident involving PII" .

In the event of a suspected or confirmed incident or breach, the Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must:

i. Protect all sensitive information, including any PII created, stored, or transmitted in the performance of this contract so as to avoid a secondary sensitive information incident with FIPS 140-3 validated encryption.

ii. NOT notify affected individuals unless so instructed by the Contracting Officer or designated representative. If so instructed by the Contracting Officer or representative, the Contractor shall send NIH approved notifications to affected individuals in accordance with https://wiki.ocio.nih.gov/wiki/index.php/US- CERT_Federal_Incident_Notification_Guidelines .

iii. Report all suspected and confirmed information security and privacy incidents and breaches to the NIH Incident Response Team (IRT) IRT@nih.gov , COR, CO, the NIH Office of the SOP (or his or her designee), and other stakeholders, including incidents involving PII, in any medium or form, including paper, oral, or electronic, as soon as possible and without unreasonable delay, no later than one (1) hour of the discovery of the loss/theft, and https://wiki.ocio.nih.gov/wiki/index.php/US-CERT_Federal_Incident_Notification_Guidelines https://wiki.ocio.nih.gov/wiki/index.php/US-CERT_Federal_Incident_Notification_Guidelines mailto:IRT@nih.gov consistent with the applicable NIH and HHS policy and procedures, NIST standards and guidelines, as well as US-CERT notification guidelines. The types of information required in an incident report must include at a minimum: company and point of contact information, contract information, impact classifications/threat vector, and the type of information compromised. In addition, the Contractor must:

• Cooperate and exchange any information, as determined by the Agency, necessary to effectively manage or mitigate a suspected or confirmed breach;

• Not include any sensitive information in the subject or body of any reporting e-mail; and

• Encrypt sensitive information in attachments to email, media, etc.

2. Comply with OMB M-17-12, Preparing for and Responding to a Breach of Personally

Identifiable Information HHS and NIH incident response policies when handling PII breaches.

3. Provide full access and cooperate on all activities as determined by the Government to ensure an effective incident response, including providing all requested images, log files, and event information to facilitate rapid resolution of sensitive information incidents. This may involve disconnecting the system processing, storing, or transmitting the sensitive information from the Internet or other networks or applying additional security controls.

This may also involve physical access to Contractor facilities during a breach/incident investigation.

4. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must provide an Incident and Breach Response Plan (IRP) in accordance with HHS/NIH, OMB, and US-CERT requirements and obtain approval from the NIH. In addition, the Contractor must follow the incident response and US-CERT reporting guidance contained in the FedRAMP Incident Communications.

5. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must implement a program of inspection to safeguard against threats and hazards to the security, confidentiality, integrity, and availability of federal data, afford HHS access to its facilities, installations, technical capabilities, operations, documentation, records, and databases within 72 hours of notification. The program of inspection must include, but is not limited to:

a. Conduct authenticated and unauthenticated operating system/network/database/Web application vulnerability scans. Automated scans can be performed by HHS/NIH personnel, or agents acting on behalf of HHS/NIH, using agency-operated equipment and/or specified tools. The Contractor may choose to run its own automated scans or audits, provided the scanning tools and configuration settings are compliant with NIST Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) standards and have been approved by the agency. The agency may request the Contractor's scanning results and, at the agency discretion, accept those in lieu of agency performed vulnerability scans.

b. In the event an incident involving sensitive information occurs, cooperate on all required activities determined by the agency to ensure an effective incident or breach response and provide all requested images, log files, and event information to facilitate rapid resolution of sensitive information incidents. In addition, the Contractor must follow the agency reporting procedures and document the steps it takes to contain and eradicate the incident, recover from the incident, and provide a post-incident report that includes at a minimum the following:

• Company and point of contact name;

• Contract information;

• Impact classifications/threat vector;

• Type of information compromised;

• A summary of lessons learned; and

• Explanation of the mitigation steps of exploited vulnerabilities to prevent similar incidents in the future.

ARTICLE H.56.5. OTHER IT PROCUREMENTS

ARTICLE H.56.5.3. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION DESIGN,

DEVELOPMENT, OR SUPPORT

a. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must ensure IT applications designed and developed for end users (including mobile applications and software licenses) run in the standard user context without requiring elevated administrative privileges.

b. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must follow secure coding best practice requirements, as directed by United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US- CERT) specified standards and the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), that will limit system software vulnerability exploits.

c. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must ensure that computer software developed on behalf of HHS or tailored from an open-source product, is fully functional and operates correctly on systems configured in accordance with government policy and federal configuration standards. The contractor shall test applicable products and versions with all relevant and current updates and patches updated prior to installing in the HHS environment. No sensitive data must be used during software testing.

d. The Contractor (and/or any subcontractor) must protect information that is deemed sensitive from unauthorized disclosure to persons, organizations or subcontractors who do not have a need to know the information. Information which, either alone or when compared with other reasonably-available information, is deemed sensitive or proprietary by HHS shall be protected as instructed in accordance with the magnitude of the loss or harm that could result from inadvertent or deliberate disclosure, alteration, or destruction of the data. This language also applies to all subcontractors that are performing under this contract.