State Department Pre-Solicitation/Draft RFP: Cybersecurity Support in International Financial Sector

Notice ID: 19AQMM24R0120

The Government intend to solicit for cybersecurity subject matter expertise to foreign governments, financial sector entities, and virtual asset service providers. The Government works with partner governments on implementation of these sanctions-related measures. This includes working with foreign financial sector firms and virtual asset service providers, with an emphasis on combatting theft and money-laundering within crypto-currency exchanges.

Pursuant to the terms of the Contract and at the direction of and within frameworks established by the Government, the Contractor shall provide cybersecurity subject matter expertise to foreign governments, financial sector entities, and virtual asset service providers.

1. At the direction of the Government, the Contractor shall begin providing remote cyber incident response support, cybersecurity consultancy, and forensic analysis services to foreign governments, financial institutions, virtual asset service providers, or other victim entities within at least 48 hours of notification.
2. At the direction of the Government, the Contractor shall deploy a minimum of two cybersecurity subject matter experts (SMEs) worldwide within 14 calendar days of notification. The cybersecurity SMEs need not be the same SMEs for each deployment, or the SMEs identified as Key Personnel. At its discretion, the Contractor may deploy different SMEs to meet the circumstances of each deployment.
3. Deployment requirements will vary based on circumstances, but may include:
   1. Supporting cybersecurity, information technology (IT), and cyber incident response personnel in identifying, analyzing, responding to, and/or preventing potentially malicious cyber operations targeting private sector or government networks.
   2. Conducting an assessment or audit of the IT design architecture of foreign entities to identify vulnerabilities and recommend solutions.
   3. Providing hands-on assistance in implementing recommended solutions.
   4. Providing training and material detailing cybersecurity best practices.
   5. Actively mitigating the effects of an ongoing network intrusion or cyber operation.
   6. Conducting analyses of malicious cyber operations, including collecting forensic evidence and assessing damage to support government or victim efforts to attribute cyber intrusions to specific advanced persistent threats.
   7. Providing reports to victim entities to raise awareness of the attack lifecycle, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and likely perpetrators.
   8. Producing sanitized incident reports for foreign entities. The Government may require specific reports to be prepared for public release.  At the request of the Government, the Contractor may be required to arrange translation of individual reports.
4. The Contractor shall arrange interpretation services as necessary for virtual engagements and deployments.
5. The Contractor shall maintain cybersecurity standards that are, at a minimum, comparable to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
6. The Contractor shall demonstrate experience responding to cyber incidents involving nation state Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). Specific experience responding to origin threats is desirable, but not required.
7. The Contractor shall explain how it will proceed in a diplomatically sensitive manner.
8. The Contractor shall possess a demonstratable cyber forensic analysis experience for entirely post-incident engagement.
9. The Contractor shall possess experience responding to ransomware incidents. Specific experience responding to origin ransomware threats is desirable, but not required.
10. The Contractor shall possess demonstrated experience providing cyber incident response assistance to government and private sector entities. Demonstrated experience supporting blockchain development companies and/or virtual asset exchanges is preferred.
11. The Contractor shall possess demonstrated experience offering post-incident remediation guidance and attribution evidence.

The Solicitation will be available on/around 11 September 2024 and will be sent directly via email to interested vendors.

The Government intend to solicit the requirement full and open. Any potential offeror should plan to propose a Program Manager with a SECRET clearance.

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