Draft PD - PolicyEngine and Secure Data Licenses.pdf

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION (PD)

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Office of Information Technology Health Technology Office

PolicyEngine and Secure Data Licenses

Date: 7/16/2024

VA-24-00085949

PD Version Number: 1.4

TAC Number: VA-24-00085949

Contents

1.0 PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

1.1 INTEGRATION AND TESTING SUPPORT

1.2 MAINTENANCE

1.3 TRAINING

1.4 PERFORMANCE PERIOD

2.0 NOTICE OF THE FEDERAL ACCESSIBILITY LAW AFFECTING ALL

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

PROCUREMENTS (SECTION 508)

2.1 SECTION 508 – INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

(ICT) STANDARDS

2.2 COMPATABILITY WITH ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

2.3 ACCEPTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE TESTING

3.0 SHIPMENT OF SOFTWARE

4.0 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

4.1 VA TECHNICAL REFERENCE MODEL

4.2 SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER (SSN) REDUCTION

4.3 INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 6 (IPV6)

4.4 SOFTWARE AND LICENSING REQUIREMENTS

4.5 POSITION/TASK RISK DESIGNATION LEVEL(S)

4.6 INFORMATION SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

ADDENDUM B – VA INFORMATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM

SECURITY/PRIVACY LANGUAGE

1.0 PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor shall provide a brand name or equal VA hosted, cloud-based Manetu Secure Data Platform software. The Solution provided shall be able to demonstrate the following salient characteristics at the time of award. If proposing an “or equal” product, please ensure it meets all salient characteristics provided below in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.211-6 “Brand Name or Equal” and FAR 52.214-21 “Descriptive Literature”:

1. Provide a cloud-agnostic, horizontally scalable secure graph data management solution that supports SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language queries and operates as a resilient Kubernetes deployment.

2. Integrate with multiple identity providers through OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol Federation to seamlessly align with VA’s existing identity management solutions, particularly for integration with VA's infrastructure. The OIDC protocol shall allow for the integration with third-party Identity Providers (IDPs), to include OAuth 2.0 (RFC 6749) based applications may interact with resources on a mutual user’s behalf.

3. Provide multiple layers of encryption (at rest, in-transit, and in-use) to protect information at all times, even from privileged users, with hardware security module like tamper resistance.

4. No backdoor access to data, every operation must flow through access policy decisions to include administrative functions, data is decrypted only when mandatory. Operations are designed to work with encrypted data whenever possible.

5. Lambda functions that allow for non-privileged queries across policy compliant data resources.

6. Tokenization and deidentification of data. Data is secured utilizing zero knowledge, encryption, and least privileged.

7. Ensure no single user or component has unilateral control, yet disaster recovery remains possible.

8. Support pluggable enclaves and attestation mechanisms for tamper/clone resistant operation. The Solution shall provide:

a. Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) support driven by customer demand

b. Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX)

c. AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV)

d. ARM TrustZone

e. Applications the ability to operate at the abstracted interface level and do not need to change for various ciphers and TEEs

9. Enforce zero trust principles including least-privilege access. The Solution must maintain a comprehensive audit trail of all activities, including both allowed and denied policy decisions. This includes ensuring that privileged users, such as infrastructure and platform operators, do not have access to tenant data, thereby preserving data confidentiality and integrity.

10. Incorporate both Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) and Role-Based

Access Control (RBAC) mechanisms.

11. Any user interfaces shall be 508 compliant within six (6) months of award.

12. Provide Policy-Based Access Control (PBAC) as an attribute-based access control model that focuses on the dynamic evaluation of policies and attributes to determine access permissions. The Solution shall:

a. Provide enhanced security to enable organizations to create fine-grained context-aware access control policies considering various attributes, such as user roles, resource sensitivity, and environmental factors such as the user’s location or time of day.

b. Provide streamlined management, simplifying access control management by centralizing policy enforcement and administration.

c. Provide scalability to accommodate the growth of an organization without requiring significant changes to the underlying infrastructure.

d. Utilize PBAC to demonstrate improved compliance with various industry standards and regulations, such as data privacy laws, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), Social Security Reduction Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements by centralizing access control policy management.

e. Provide Policy Federation across multiple deployments to centralize their IAM configuration.

f. Provide policy management, leveraging a standard language like REGO, must provide precise control over resource access. The Solution must allow for a contextualized view of the secured data from a single source based off of a request-by-request basis.

The solution shall provide data security to include:

1. Enable fine-grained data encryption to ensure individualized security, with the provision for separate encryption keys for each veteran, policy, tenant, or data owner. All cryptographic keys must be comprehensively managed by the platform. The Solution shall provide support for Transcendent Data allowing different Sensitivities, Ownership, Jurisdiction, Lifecycle, and Access Restrictions across Vaults and Data stores.

2. Support the ability to deidentify Veteran data. The Solution shall support delegated queries based off of ABAC allowing analytics and other non-privileged uses.

3. Provide full developer application programming interfaces and documentation allowing for integration into VA services, applications, platforms and data sources.

1.1 INTEGRATION AND TESTING SUPPORT

The Contractor shall provide integration of the Solution’s policy encryption and the secure data requirements into VA’s Health Service Mesh. The Contractor shall also provide integration support for Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) policy enforcement. The Contractor shall test the integrated Solution to ensure it operates successfully.

1.2 MAINTENANCE

The Contractor shall provide product updates bi-annually.

1.3 TRAINING

The Contractor shall provide two virtual developer training sessions for 30 users per session. The date and time of the sessions shall be coordinated with the VA Project Manager and/or Contracting Officer’s Representative.

1.4 PERFORMANCE PERIOD

The Period of Performance (PoP) shall be 12-months from date of award, with three 12-month Option Periods. If the Option Period(s) are exercised by VA, the Contractor shall continue to perform tasks 1.0 through 1.3, to include the licensing of the Solution.

2.0 NOTICE OF THE FEDERAL ACCESSIBILITY LAW AFFECTING ALL

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

PROCUREMENTS (SECTION 508)

On January 18, 2017, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) revised and updated, in a single rulemaking, standards for electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by Federal agencies covered by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as well as our guidelines for telecommunications equipment and customer premises equipment covered by Section 255 of the Communications Act of 1934. The revisions and updates to the Section 508-based standards and Section 255-based guidelines are intended to ensure that information and communication technology (ICT) covered by the respective statutes is accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.

2.1 SECTION 508 – INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

STANDARDS

The Section 508 standards established by the Access Board are incorporated into, and made part of all VA orders, solicitations and purchase orders developed to procure ICT.

These standards are found in their entirety at: https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines. A printed copy of the standards will be supplied upon request.

Federal agencies must comply with the updated Section 508 Standards beginning on January 18, 2018. The Final Rule as published in the Federal Register is available from the Access Board: https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule.

The Contractor shall comply with “508 Chapter 2: Scoping Requirements” for all electronic ICT and content delivered under this contract. Specifically, as appropriate for the technology and its functionality, the Contractor shall comply with the technical standards marked here:

E205 Electronic Content – (Accessibility Standard -WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA Guidelines)

E204 Functional Performance Criteria E206 Hardware Requirements E207 Software Requirements E208 Support Documentation and Services Requirements

2.2 COMPATABILITY WITH ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

The standards do not require installation of specific accessibility-related software or attachment of an assistive technology device. Section 508 requires that ICT be compatible with such software and devices so that ICT can be accessible to and usable by individuals using assistive technology, including but not limited to screen readers, screen magnifiers, and speech recognition software.

2.3 ACCEPTANCE AND ACCEPTANCE TESTING

Deliverables resulting from this solicitation will be accepted based in part on satisfaction of the Section 508 Chapter 2: Scoping Requirements standards identified above.

https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule

The Government reserves the right to test for Section 508 Compliance before delivery.

The Contractor shall be able to demonstrate Section 508 Compliance upon delivery.

3.0 SHIPMENT OF SOFTWARE

Inspection: Destination Acceptance: Destination Free on Board (FOB): Destination

Ship To and Mark For:

Primary Alternate Name: Steve Eaton Name: Daryl Kling Address: PO Box 162

Sitka, AK 99835 Address: 8358 S Coyote Song Lane

Hereford, AZ 85615 Voice: 907-727-5217 Voice: 520-342-6802 Email: Steve.Eaton@va.gov Email: Daryl.Kling@va.gov

4.0 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

4.1 VA TECHNICAL REFERENCE MODEL

The Contractor shall support the VA enterprise management framework. In association with the framework, the Contractor shall comply with OIT Technical Reference Model (VA TRM). The VA TRM is one component within the overall Enterprise Architecture (EA) that establishes a common vocabulary and structure for describing the information technology used to develop, operate, and maintain enterprise applications. Moreover, the VA TRM, which includes the Standards Profile and Product List, serves as a technology roadmap and tool for supporting OIT. Architecture & Engineering Services (AES) has overall responsibility for the VA TRM.

4.2 SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER (SSN) REDUCTION

The Contractor solution shall support the Social Security Number (SSN) Fraud Prevention Act (FPA) of 2017 which prohibits the inclusion of SSNs on any document sent by mail. The Contractor support shall also be performed in accordance with Section 240 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) 2018, enacted March 23, 2018, which mandates VA to discontinue using SSNs to identify individuals in all VA information systems as the Primary Identifier. The Contractor shall ensure that any new IT solution discontinues the use of SSN as the Primary Identifier to replace the SSN with the Integrated Control Number (ICN) in all VA information systems for all individuals. The Contractor shall ensure that all Contractor delivered applications and systems integrate with the VA Master Person Index (MPI) for identity traits to include the use of the ICN as the Primary Identifier. The Contractor solution may only use a Social Security Number to identify an individual in an information system if and only if the use of such number is required to obtain information VA requires from an information system that is not under the jurisdiction of VA.

4.3 INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 6 (IPV6)

The Contractor solution shall support Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) based upon the memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on November 19, 2020 (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/M-21-07.pdf). IPv6 technology, in accordance with the USGv6 Program (https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/usgv6-program/usgv6-revision-1), NIST Special Publication (SP) 500-267B Revision 1 “USGv6 Profile” (https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.500-267Br1), and NIST SP 800-119 “Guidelines for the Secure Deployment of IPv6” (https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-119), compliance shall be included in all IT infrastructures, application designs, application development, operational systems and sub-systems, and their integration. In addition to the above requirements, all devices shall support native IPv6 and dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) connectivity without additional memory or other resources being provided by the Government, so that they can function in a mixed environment. All public/external facing servers and services (e.g., web, email, DNS, ISP services, etc.) shall support native IPv6 and dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) users and all internal infrastructure and applications shall communicate using native IPv6 and dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) operations.

4.4 SOFTWARE AND LICENSING REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor shall be responsible for the provision of all software licenses and any associated licensing maintenance required for any development, delivery, integration, operation, and/or maintenance associated with its proposed application(s), software products, software solution, and/or system including, but not limited to, any and all application(s), software and/or software products that comprise, are a part of, or integrate with the Contractor’s proposed application(s), software products, software solution, and/or system for the life of any resulting contract.

4.5 POSITION/TASK RISK DESIGNATION LEVEL(S)

In accordance with VA Handbook 0710, Personnel Security and Suitability Program, the position sensitivity and the level of background investigation commensurate with the required level of access for the following tasks within the PD are:

Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation Requirements by Service Task/Item Number https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/M-21-07.pdf file://R04.med.va.gov/V03/EAS/Users/vhaeasWymbsk/TEMPLATES--NEW%20TAC%20PROCESS/PWS%20TEMPLATE%20(DO%20NOT%20TOUCH)%20-%20In%20Process%20Revisions/DO%20NOT%20TOUCH%20(next%20version/IPv6/(https:/www.nist.gov/programs-projects/usgv6-program/usgv6-revision-1 file://R04.med.va.gov/V03/EAS/Users/vhaeasWymbsk/TEMPLATES--NEW%20TAC%20PROCESS/PWS%20TEMPLATE%20(DO%20NOT%20TOUCH)%20-%20In%20Process%20Revisions/DO%20NOT%20TOUCH%20(next%20version/IPv6/(https:/www.nist.gov/programs-projects/usgv6-program/usgv6-revision-1 https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.500-267Br1 https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-119

Service Task/ Item Number

Tier1 / Low Risk Tier 2 / Moderate Risk

Tier 4 / High Risk

1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

The Tasks identified above and the resulting Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation requirements identify, in effect, the Background Investigation requirements for Contractor individuals, based upon the tasks the particular Contractor individual will be working. The submitted Contractor Staff Roster must indicate the required Background Investigation Level for each Contractor individual based upon the tasks the Contractor individual will be working, in accordance with their submitted proposal.

4.6 INFORMATION SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

All VA sensitive information shall be protected at all times in accordance with local security field office System Security Plans (SSP’s) and Authority to Operate (ATO)’s for all systems/LAN’s accessed while performing the tasks detailed in this Product Description.

5.0 POINTS OF CONTACT

VA Program Manager:

Name: Steve Eaton Address: PO Box 162

Sitka, AK 99835 Voice: 907-623-8641 Email: Steve.Eaton@va.gov

Contracting Officer’s Representative:

Name: Daryl Kling Address: 8358 S Coyote Song Lane Hereford, AZ 85615 Voice: 520-342-6802 Email: Daryl.Kling@va.gov

Contracting Officer:

Name: Meghan McCloskey Address: 23 Christopher Way

Eatontown, NJ 07724 Voice: 848-377-5151 Email: Meghan.McCloskey@va.gov

Contract Specialist:

Name: Jamie Valentine Address: 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724 Voice: 848-377-5091 Email: Jamie.Valentine@va.gov

ADDENDUM B – VA INFORMATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM

SECURITY/PRIVACY LANGUAGE

APPLICABLE PARAGRAPHS TAILORED FROM: THE VA INFORMATION AND

INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY/PRIVACY LANGUAGE, VA HANDBOOK

6500.6, APPENDIX C, MARCH 12, 2010

B1. GENERAL

Contractors, Contractor personnel, Subcontractors, and Subcontractor personnel shall be subject to the same Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks as VA and VA personnel regarding information and information system security.

B2. ACCESS TO VA INFORMATION AND VA INFORMATION SYSTEMS

a. A Contractor/Subcontractor shall request logical (technical) or physical access to VA information and VA information systems for their employees, Subcontractors, and affiliates only to the extent necessary to perform the services specified in the contract, agreement, or task order.

b. All Contractors, Subcontractors, and third-party servicers and associates working with VA information are subject to the same investigative requirements as those of VA appointees or employees who have access to the same types of information. The level and process of background security investigations for Contractors must be in accordance with VA Directive and Handbook 0710, Personnel Suitability and Security Program. The Office for Operations, Security, and Preparedness is responsible for these policies and procedures.

c. Contract personnel who require access to national security programs must have a valid security clearance. National Industrial Security Program (NISP) was established by Executive Order 12829 to ensure that cleared U.S. defense industry contract personnel safeguard the classified information in their possession while performing work on contracts, programs, bids, or research and development efforts. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not have a Memorandum of Agreement with Defense Security Service (DSS). Verification of a Security Clearance must be processed through the Special Security Officer located in the Planning and National Security Service within the Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness.

d. Custom software development and outsourced operations must be located in the U.S. to the maximum extent practical. If such services are proposed to be performed abroad and are not disallowed by other VA policy or mandates (e.g., Business Associate Agreement, Section 3G), the Contractor/Subcontractor must state where all non-U.S. services are provided and detail a security plan, deemed to be acceptable by

VA, specifically to address mitigation of the resulting problems of communication, control, data protection, and so forth. Location within the U.S. may be an evaluation factor.

e. The Contractor or Subcontractor must notify the CO immediately when an employee working on a VA system or with access to VA information is reassigned or leaves the Contractor or Subcontractor’s employ. The CO must also be notified immediately by the Contractor or Subcontractor prior to an unfriendly termination.

B3. VA INFORMATION CUSTODIAL LANGUAGE

1. Information made available to the Contractor or Subcontractor by VA for the performance or administration of this contract or information developed by the Contractor/Subcontractor in performance or administration of the contract shall be used only for those purposes and shall not be used in any other way without the prior written agreement of VA. This clause expressly limits the Contractor/Subcontractor's rights to use data as described in Rights in Data - General, FAR 52.227-14(d) (1).

2. VA information should not be co-mingled, if possible, with any other data on the Contractors/Subcontractor’s information systems or media storage systems in order to ensure VA requirements related to data protection and media sanitization can be met. If co-mingling must be allowed to meet the requirements of the business need, the Contractor must ensure that VA information is returned to VA or destroyed in accordance with VA’s sanitization requirements. VA reserves the right to conduct on-site inspections of Contractor and Subcontractor IT resources to ensure data security controls, separation of data and job duties, and destruction/media sanitization procedures are in compliance with VA directive requirements.

3. Prior to termination or completion of this contract, Contractor/Subcontractor must not destroy information received from VA, or gathered/created by the Contractor in the course of performing this contract without prior written approval by VA. Any data destruction done on behalf of VA by a Contractor/Subcontractor must be done in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements as outlined in VA Directive 6300, Records and Information Management and its Handbook 6300.1 Records Management Procedures, applicable VA Records Control Schedules, and VA Handbook 6500.1, Electronic Media Sanitization. Self-certification by the Contractor that the data destruction requirements above have been met must be sent to the VA CO within 30 days of termination of the contract.

4. The Contractor/Subcontractor must receive, gather, store, back up, maintain, use, disclose and dispose of VA information only in compliance with the terms of the contract and applicable Federal and VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies. If Federal or VA information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies become applicable to VA information or information systems after execution of the contract, or if NIST issues or updates applicable FIPS or Special

Publications (SP) after execution of this contract, the parties agree to negotiate in good faith to implement the information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies in this contract.

5. The Contractor/Subcontractor shall not make copies of VA information except as authorized and necessary to perform the terms of the agreement or to preserve electronic information stored on Contractor/Subcontractor electronic storage media for restoration in case any electronic equipment or data used by the Contractor/Subcontractor needs to be restored to an operating state. If copies are made for restoration purposes, after the restoration is complete, the copies must be appropriately destroyed.

6. If VA determines that the Contractor has violated any of the information confidentiality, privacy, and security provisions of the contract, it shall be sufficient grounds for VA to withhold payment to the Contractor or third party or terminate the contract for default or terminate for cause under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12.

7. If a VHA contract is terminated for cause, the associated Business Associate Agreement (BAA) must also be terminated and appropriate actions taken in accordance with VHA Directive 1605.05, Business Associate Agreements. Absent an agreement to use or disclose protected health information, there is no business associate relationship.

8. The Contractor/Subcontractor must store, transport, or transmit VA sensitive information in an encrypted form, using VA-approved encryption tools that are, at a minimum, FIPS 140-2 validated.

9. The Contractor/Subcontractor’s firewall and Web services security controls, if applicable, shall meet or exceed VA minimum requirements. VA Configuration Guidelines are available upon request.

10. Except for uses and disclosures of VA information authorized by this contract for performance of the contract, the Contractor/Subcontractor may use and disclose VA information only in two other situations: (i) in response to a qualifying order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or (ii) with VA prior written approval. The Contractor/Subcontractor must refer all requests for, demands for production of, or inquiries about, VA information and information systems to the VA CO for response.

11. Notwithstanding the provision above, the Contractor/Subcontractor shall not release VA records protected by Title 38 U.S.C. 5705, confidentiality of medical quality assurance records and/or Title 38 U.S.C. 7332, confidentiality of certain health records pertaining to drug addiction, sickle cell anemia, alcoholism or alcohol abuse, or infection with human immunodeficiency virus. If the Contractor/Subcontractor is in receipt of a court order or other requests for the above-mentioned information, that

Contractor/Subcontractor shall immediately refer such court orders or other requests to the VA CO for response.

12. For service that involves the storage, generating, transmitting, or exchanging of VA sensitive information but does not require Assessment and Authorization (A&A) or a Memorandum of Understanding-Interconnection Security Agreement (MOU-ISA) for system interconnection, the Contractor/Subcontractor must complete a Contractor Security Control Assessment (CSCA) on a yearly basis and provide it to the COR.

B4. INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

N/A

B5. INFORMATION SYSTEM HOSTING, OPERATION, MAINTENANCE, OR USE

B6. SECURITY INCIDENT INVESTIGATION

a. The term “security incident” means an event that has, or could have, resulted in unauthorized access to, loss or damage to VA assets, or sensitive information, or an action that breaches VA security procedures. The Contractor/Subcontractor shall immediately notify the COR and simultaneously, the designated ISO and Privacy Officer for the contract of any known or suspected security/privacy incidents, or any unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, including that contained in system(s) to which the Contractor/Subcontractor has access.

b. To the extent known by the Contractor/Subcontractor, the Contractor/Subcontractor’s notice to VA shall identify the information involved, the circumstances surrounding the incident (including to whom, how, when, and where the VA information or assets were placed at risk or compromised), and any other information that the Contractor/Subcontractor considers relevant.

c. With respect to unsecured protected health information, the business associate is deemed to have discovered a data breach when the business associate knew or should have known of a breach of such information. Upon discovery, the business associate must notify the covered entity of the breach. Notifications need to be made in accordance with the executed business associate agreement.

d. In instances of theft or break-in or other criminal activity, the Contractor/Subcontractor must concurrently report the incident to the appropriate law enforcement entity (or entities) of jurisdiction, including the VA OIG and Security and Law Enforcement. The Contractor, its employees, and its Subcontractors and their employees shall cooperate with VA and any law enforcement authority responsible for the investigation and prosecution of any possible criminal law violation(s) associated with any incident. The Contractor/Subcontractor shall cooperate with VA in any civil litigation to recover VA information, obtain monetary or other compensation from a third party for damages arising from any incident, or obtain injunctive relief against any third party arising from, or related to, the incident.

B7. LIQUIDATED DAMAGES FOR DATA BREACH

a. Consistent with the requirements of 38 U.S.C. §5725, a contract may require access to sensitive personal information. If so, the Contractor is liable to VA for liquidated damages in the event of a data breach or privacy incident involving any SPI the Contractor/Subcontractor processes or maintains under this contract. However, it is the policy of VA to forgo collection of liquidated damages in the event the Contractor provides payment of actual damages in an amount determined to be adequate by the agency.

b. The Contractor/Subcontractor shall provide notice to VA of a “security incident” as set forth in the Security Incident Investigation section above. Upon such notification, VA must secure from a non-Department entity or the VA Office of Inspector General an independent risk analysis of the data breach to determine the level of risk associated with the data breach for the potential misuse of any sensitive personal information involved in the data breach. The term 'data breach' means the loss, theft, or other unauthorized access, or any access other than that incidental to the scope of employment, to data containing sensitive personal information, in electronic or printed form, that results in the potential compromise of the confidentiality or integrity of the data. Contractor shall fully cooperate with the entity performing the risk analysis. Failure to cooperate may be deemed a material breach and grounds for contract termination.

c. Each risk analysis shall address all relevant information concerning the data breach, including the following:

1) Nature of the event (loss, theft, unauthorized access);

2) Description of the event, including:

a) date of occurrence;

b) data elements involved, including any PII, such as full name, social security number, date of birth, home address, account number, disability code;

3) Number of individuals affected or potentially affected;

4) Names of individuals or groups affected or potentially affected;

5) Ease of logical data access to the lost, stolen or improperly accessed data in light of the degree of protection for the data, e.g., unencrypted, plain text;

6) Amount of time the data has been out of VA control;

7) The likelihood that the sensitive personal information will or has been compromised (made accessible to and usable by unauthorized persons);

8) Known misuses of data containing sensitive personal information, if any;

9) Assessment of the potential harm to the affected individuals;

10) Data breach analysis as outlined in 6500.2 Handbook, Management of Breaches Involving Sensitive Personal Information, as appropriate; and

11) Whether credit protection services may assist record subjects in avoiding or mitigating the results of identity theft based on the sensitive personal information that may have been compromised.

d. Based on the determinations of the independent risk analysis, the Contractor shall be responsible for paying to VA liquidated damages in the amount of $37.50 per affected individual to cover the cost of providing credit protection services to affected individuals consisting of the following:

1) Notification;

2) One year of credit monitoring services consisting of automatic daily monitoring of at least 3 relevant credit bureau reports;

3) Data breach analysis;

4) Fraud resolution services, including writing dispute letters, initiating fraud alerts and credit freezes, to assist affected individuals to bring matters to resolution;

5) One year of identity theft insurance with $20,000.00 coverage at $0 deductible;

and

6) Necessary legal expenses the subjects may incur to repair falsified or damaged credit records, histories, or financial affairs.

B8. SECURITY CONTROLS COMPLIANCE TESTING

B9. TRAINING

a.All Contractor employees and Subcontractor employees requiring access to VA information and VA information systems shall complete the following before being granted access to VA information and its systems:

1) Sign and acknowledge (either manually or electronically) understanding of and responsibilities for compliance with the VA Information Security Rules of Behavior, relating to access to VA information and information systems;

2) Successfully complete the VA Privacy and Information Security Awareness and

Rules of Behavior course (TMS #10176) and complete this required privacy and information security training annually;

3) Successfully complete any additional cyber security or privacy training, as required for VA personnel with equivalent information system access [to be defined by the VA program official and provided to the CO for inclusion in the solicitation document – e.g., any role-based information security training required in accordance with NIST Special Publication 800-16, Information Technology Security Training Requirements.] b.The Contractor shall provide to the CO and/or the COR a copy of the training certificates and certification of signing the Contractor Rules of Behavior for each applicable employee within 2 days of the initiation of the contract and annually thereafter, as required.

c.Failure to complete the mandatory annual training and electronically sign the Rules of

Behavior annually, within the timeframe required, is grounds for suspension or termination of all physical or electronic access privileges and removal from work on the contract until such time as the training and documents are complete.

ADDENDUM B – VA INFORMATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY/PRIVACY LANGUAGE