About

In 2018, the Department of Defense faced a threat to its military advantage by determined adversaries and their intent to steal plans, documentation, designs, and intellectual property for key weapon systems. In response to this threat, the Department established the Protecting Critical Technology Task Force (PCTTF) in 2018, which, across four lines of effort, aimed to improve the cybersecurity of the Defense Industrial Base, secure the Department of Defense research and development enterprise, stop technology leakage through export and foreign ownership, and impose costs on adversary intelligence campaigns.

The Department relies on its prime contractors to ensure the sanctity and operational security of critical information integrated in its programs—close coordination, cyber-conscious program management, and the establishment of appropriate incentives are critical. Hence, it becomes extremely important to identify SMBs (small-to-medium business) that might pose a threat to the federal department and it's research and acitivities.

Problem Statement: Identify important subcontractors based on critical criteria defined by the NSA and explore other aspects of the awards dataset.

Analysis

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Number of contracts funded by Subagency

From the figure alongside, it can be seen that over 70% of the contracts are funded by The DARPA and over 25% of the contracts funded by the Department of Air Force. It becomes extremely important to accurately evaluate the threats posed by the subcontractors since all the contracts heavily involve state secrets, plans, politicies, systems in place and access to them.

Identify the most common business types of the companies involved

Most of the organizations who have been awarded contracts are Goods Manufacturers and For-profit firms/ companies. A research published by Deloitte- Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) found that most of the cyber threats experienced by manufacturers were coming from internal employees through phishing, direct abuse of IT systems, errors and omissions and use of mobile devices. Source

Identify important subcontractors

According to the NSA, there are two criteria to decide if a subcontractor is important or not.

• Subcontractors appearing in majority of the supply chain or contracts.

• Subcontractors that provide with a unique product.

Ducommun Incorporated and NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION are the top two companies with highest number of contracts, both of which are publicly listed Aerospace and Defence companies.

Different projects undertaken by the Prime Contractors

It can be seen that the different projects undertaken by the NSA and the contractors are related to Hypersonic Air Breat which is one of the most recent developments in Hypersonic missiles and still in development stages in many countries. A cyberattack on such a crucial and sensitive weapon, in the wrong hands, can lead to a nuclear war.

One very interesting observation is that the only parent company- ORBITAL ATK, INC. (ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS OPERATIONS LLC) is working on the AMS:AAWS project which makes this a unique project out of the all along with AMS:HYPERSONICS. Interestingly, the same subawardee ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS OPERATIONS LLC is the company/ subsidary/ branch of the ORBITAL ATK, INC. with the maximum number of awards granted which makes this company and parent company one the most important subcontractors.