DISA Awards By Light With $199M OTA for CBII Program

The Defense Information Systems Agency has awarded By Light Professional IT Services a $198.9M other transaction authority agreement to support the Department of Defense's Cloud Based Internet Isolation program. 

DOD's CBII program was created to address congestion at internet access points and minimize the attack surface of department networks through the isolation of malicious content and content in the cloud, DISA said Wednesday. 

The OTA, which has a one-year base period of performance and four one-year option periods, will help move non-mission-essential internet browsing off of the endpoint to a cloud-based environment.

According to DISA, the department's partnership with industry will directly support U.S. warfighters with cloud-based cybersecurity while protecting their electronic devices from exposure to direct threats.

DISA's CBII team added that its partnership with industry let it determine how best to defend against web browser-based threats.

The agency's Defense IT Contracting Organization said it significantly shortened the acquisition timelines under the OTA acquisition strategy and assessment phase, resulting in the fielding of new capabilities. 

DOD mission partners actively participated in deploying and testing both capabilities, according to DISA. The testers provided in-depth feedback on requirements and on how DISA could best meet them through a metrics-driven approach. 

The CBII solutions successfully completed the prototype OTAs, each meeting project milestones and successfully demonstrating benefits that would increase DISA's and DOD's cybersecurity posture. 

DISA said the capability transfers internet browsing activities from desktop browsers to a more secure, isolated cloud platform.

The tool isolates suspect code and content code within the platform and keeps the threat from directly connecting to DOD networks.